Wassila Dridi is a Principal Investment Officer in Water and Sanitation at the African Development Bank with more than ten years of experience. While based in Afdb’s headquarters: Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Wassila covers private financing operations in Water, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management including corporate finance, project finance and equity investments. She also covers the financing of subnational entities and publicly owned companies in the sector such as water utilities. Wassila has a proven ability to source and structure projects of various sizes. She also supports African countries in undertaking the necessary preparatory work to structure bankable projects. Passionate by private sector development, she brings in a diversified experience supporting SMEs and business leaders in developing their projects in the US, China, the Middle East and Africa by leading programs at multilateral development institutions, NGOs and commercial banks. Prior to the African Development Bank, Wassila has worked for the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC, Credit Agricole Corporate Investment Banking (CA-CIB) in Paris, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group) in Chicago, IL and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Tunisia.

Wassila studied international finance in France and the United States of America. She holds a Masters of Science from California State University and a Masters from Cergy Pontoise University in France. She is also a graduate from Paris Dauphine University in France.