Mali's New President Names Banker as Prime Minister

Oumar Tatam Ly recently worked at the Central Bank of West African States

Mali's new president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Thursday made 49-year-old banker Oumar Tatam Ly his prime minister, an official decree announced the day after Keita's investiture.

Ly, the son of celebrated writer and politician Ibrahima Ly, was until recently employed by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) which serves the eight regional countries using the CFA franc.

A career technocrat, he has little political experience and is expected to rely heavily on advisers as he heads an administration charged with leading the deeply-divided west African nation's emergence from months of political chaos and war.

Born in Paris, Ly was until recently a special adviser to the governor of BCEAO, based in the Senegalese capital Dakar, having enjoyed a meteoric rise.