About Ebrima

Bonjour

I’m a finance professional with one of the most dynamic roles in any organization – the CFO. As an executive, teacher, and mentor, I love helping others grow and do their best. On top of my professional job, 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 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 topics in personal finance, personal development, and topics I think will be helpful for 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 Cote D’Ivoire given by the Prime Minister of the Republic.

 

Professional bio

Ebrima Sawaneh is a CFO, banker, writer, and educator.

He demonstrates strong communication skills, 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) at Arise Ports & Logistics, where he oversees finance & accounting functions. Before this role, he serves as Vice President of Finance at Africa Finance Corporation & Assistant Manager & Deputy Country CFO of Ecobank Gambia.

He is a chartered accountant with MBA in Finance and attended several executive education programs such Wharton Leadership Certificate and Harvard Business School Strategic CFO Course.

 

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