Kofi Agyen

Mr. Kofi Boateng Agyen has nearly three decades of progressive professional experience and expertise in fostering economic development focusing on financial and private sector development in developing country economies. He’s currently a Tourism development advisor and a technical specialist to a Ghanaian Development and Investment Foundation. Until recently, he served as a Senior Private Sector Specialist in the Finance Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice Department of The World Bank Group (WBG), based in Nigeria. During this period, he led the design of client sector-specific development programs financed by the WBG and also provided oversight for the improved competitiveness of Nigerian Small & Medium Enterprises through increased awareness on productivity improvement systems such as investment Climate/Business Enabling Environment Reforms, institution of Public-Private Dialog arrangements, etc. to facilitate private and financial sector development.

He has over 25 years’ experience in economic development in developing countries, including fragile, conflict and violence affected countries. He has provided development advisory services to high levels of various government, led the design and implementation of multi-million dollar private and financial sector development projects covering areas such as improving entrepreneurship, tourism, trade facilitation, state-owned enterprises reform, power sector reforms, non-bank financial institutions reform, and improved global value chain systems, among others.

He has the opportunity to apply his expertise and work experiences in international development economics by leading WBG’s technical teams on development dialogs with client countries. He has provided such advice and development assistance in several countries, including, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, The Gambia, Cabo Verde, Mauritania, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. His professional experiences have been built up working on Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Japan. He has represented the WBG on high level groups such as the President’s Investment Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa in countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, The Gambia, Cabo Verde and Nigeria. The advisory services provided led to improvements in the investment climate in all these jurisdictions.

Before joining the World Bank Group, Mr. Agyen worked for 10 years in the U.S. financial industry and in academia. He was a Senior Finance and Marketing Specialist in a US$1.0 billion company and led specialized teams to develop financial, credit and product marketing statistical models which aimed to identify potential clients. He also served as an Adjunct instructor in the Graduate Business and Economics Department of the Bowling Green (Ohio) State University.