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Banque Centrale de Djibouti to Helm the IFSB Chairmanship for 2024

Date posted: 16 August 2023

16 August 2023, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – The Council of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) today resolved to appoint its Chairman and Deputy Chairman for the year 2024. H.E. Ahmed Osman Ali, Governor of Banque Centrale de Djibouti (Central Bank of Djibouti) will take over the Chairmanship of the IFSB, while H.E. Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor of Bank Al Maghrib will be the Deputy Chairman. H.E. Ahmed Osman Ali will take over the chairmanship of the IFSB from H.E. Ayman Al Sayari, Governor of Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). The new appointments will take effect on 1 January 2024 onwards.

Brief profiles of the newly appointed Chairman and Deputy Chairperson are as follows:

H.E. Ahmed Osman Ali, Governor of the Central Bank of Djibouti since January 2013, holds a Master's Degree in Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Banking Economics obtained in France.

Before joining the Central Bank at the end of the 1980s, Governor Osman began his career in the field of tertiary education, where he, respectively, worked as a professor of economics at the high schools of Tours, at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, and at the Tours School of Management from 1985 to 1989. He acquired a long and fruitful career at the Central Bank as Controller General of Operations and Head of Mission of the on-site Banking Supervision Department from 1989 to 1997. During this period, Governor Osman led the reform of the local financial system by introducing new regulations (Statutes of the Central Bank, Banking Law, Islamic Finance, Development of Microfinance), by reorganizing and strengthening the missions of the Central Bank (supervision, AML/FT, etc.), and conducting negotiations with Bretton Woods institutions.

Since 2013, Governor Osman has championed major reforms to transform the financial system, which includes modernization of the national payment system, improvement of the credit information system, introduction of leasing, creation of a guarantee fund for financing of SMEs, forming a national sharia committee, etc.

H.E. Abdellatif Jouahri brings huge experience to his role as governor of Morocco’s central bank. Born in Fez in 1939, Jouahri held several management posts at Bank al-Maghrib between 1962 and 1978.

He later entered government as delegate minister in charge of public enterprise reform, before being promoted in 1981 to finance minister, a post he held for five years. That was followed by almost a decade as chairman and managing director of Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur, one of the kingdom’s largest commercial finance institutions. He is a former president of the banking sector’s trade body, Le Groupement Professionel du Banques du Maroc. After a brief tenure as head of the Caisse Interprofessionnelle Marocaine de Retraite (Morocco Professional Pension Fund), which caters to private sector workers, Jouahri was appointed to take over the top post at the central bank in 2003.

The 42^nd meeting of the IFSB Council hosted by SAMA was held on 16 August 2023. The Council meeting chaired by H.E. Ayman Al Sayari, Governor of SAMA and Chairman of the IFSB for 2023, attended by the Central Bank Governors, Deputy Governors, Heads of regulatory and supervisory authorities, senior representatives from among the Council and Full members of the IFSB, representing 19 countries and Islamic Development Bank.