Ndeye Thiaw, a financier committed to developing Senegal’s private sector

Through West Plus, a financial consultancy she founded in 2011, Ndeye Thiaw helps Senegalese businesses  obtain financing from banks. This finance and investment specialist, committed to the development of the private sector in Senegal, also runs Brightmore Capital, an investment fund based in West Africa, which promotes economic and social development.

Today, the Senegalese shares her time between her company, West Plus, and Brightmore Capital, where she has been an associate partner since 2018. She discovered her passion for finance after completing a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at the University of California, Riverside, and an internship at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship. In 2006, she began her professional career within the financial institution, initially as a financial analyst and then, from 2008 to 2011, she was in charge of professional investments and financial markets, particularly within the IFC’s Central Office for French-speaking West Africa, which she then joined. Her main responsibilities included identifying investment opportunities, executing transactions and managing client portfolios.

Drawing on her skills in financial arrangement and seeking financing, she created West Plus in 2011, with the aim of helping Senegalese companies find financing from banks. The company aims to be a gender-focused network of business angels offering a range of services, including advice on organisational strategy, mergers and acquisitions, fundraising and financial engineering…

In 2018, she co-founded Brightmore Capital, an investment fund based in Dakar, Senegal, and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, offering strategic advisory services in finance, investment and aimed at the economic and social development of Africa.

Ndeye Thiaw also worked as a Senior Analyst at the Africa Rating Agency in Senegal from 2014 to 2017. She was also a special advisor to the Senegalese government for an agricultural entrepreneurship program from 2014 to 2016. From 2020 to 2021, she was also chair of the Mastercard Foundation’s investment committee for the post-covid 19 resilience program for SMEs, micro-entrepreneurs, Very small enterprises (VSE) in Senegal. She is also a member of the board of Villgro Africa, an incubator and impact investor that supports start-ups in the healthcare sector in Africa. She was also a Board Member of Share Africa, a forum for youth, creativity, innovation and Africa.