About Ebrima
Bonjour
I’m a finance professional with one of the most dynamic roles in any organization – the CFO & COO. As an executive, teacher, and mentor, I love helping others grow and do their best. In addition to my professional work, I’m a husband, father, writer, and social entrepreneur.
Like most millennials, I am resilient and value-driven, but my story is different yet similar to those of thousands of young people in Africa. Much of my inspiration comes from my life experience — I have dropped out of secondary school and university due to funding. But I have returned to school and completed all my courses. Therefore, I tend to cover personal finance, personal development, and topics I think will be helpful to others. Beyond that, I spend most of my time with family and friends, using useful tools, or tinkering on my strategic side gigs.
I enjoy the support of brilliant mentors, leaders, and colleagues who share the vision of “building others. Additionally, I’m excited by the ever-growing challenges my career and life experience offer and keen to take them on.
I won several awards from school to office, but my proudest moment is the National Order of Knight from the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, awarded by the Prime Minister in 2022. Added to that is the double award of ACCA Africa Corporate CFO of the Year and ACCA Africa CFO of the Year 2025.
Professional bio
Ebrima Sawaneh is a CFO, banker, writer, and educator.
He demonstrates strong communication skills, is a positive, levelheaded professional with excellent technical, leadership, and management capabilities in an international environment, working with executive teams and providing advice and decision support to senior management.
Ebrima is currently the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) & Chief Operating Officer at Arise Ports & Logistics, where he oversees finance, accounting, operations, and governance functions. Before this role, he served as Vice President of Finance at Africa Finance Corporation & Assistant Manager & Deputy Country CFO of Ecobank Gambia.
He is a chartered accountant (Fellow of ACCA) with an MBA in Finance and has attended several executive education programs, including the Wharton Leadership Certificate, Said Business School, and Harvard Business School.
Skills
- Organizational Leadership
- Financial Management
- Budgeting/Cost Control
- Project Financing
- Process Improvement
- Coaching & Mentoring
- Operations
- Risk Management
- Financial Reporting
- Financial Modelling
- Project Management
- IT Literacy
- Training
- Stakeholder Management
- Corporate governance