Oulimata Sarr
Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation, Republic of Senegal
Oulimata Sarr, born in Dakar on 6 January 1970, has become the Senegalese Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation since September 2022. She was for more than three years the Regional Director, West and Central Africa for UN Women, a UN agency mandated for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
She was born and raised in Senegal, then furthered her studies in Canada at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montréal). She graduated in 1992 and completed her post-graduate studies at the University of Bedforshire in Great Britain where she got her MBA in 2002. She began her career at Ernest & Young in audit, in Senegal, then spent ten years at the International Finance Corporation, a member institution of the World Bank Group, before joining the United Nations. She became Regional Advisor on Women’s Economic Empowerment at the UN Women Regional Office for West and Central Africa, and then Deputy Regional Director.
From 1993 to 2005, she worked as Administrative and Financial Director of Interair South Africa airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She was Chair of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Jury for Sub-Saharan Africa and a member of the UnitLife Advisory Board.
On September 17, 2022, she became Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation. This is the first time in Senegal that a woman has held such position.
