Ivory Coast: Achi reappointed PM, regional bank chief named VP | Government News

President Alassane Ouattara accepted the resignation of his entire cabinet last week ahead of a government reshuffle.

Patrick Achi has been reappointed as prime minister of Ivory Coast just a week after resigning from the post, Senate President Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio has said.

Ahoussou-Kouadio was speaking to a joint session of parliament on Tuesday. A reshuffled cabinet is due to be announced soon, although details of that remain sparse.

The prime minister’s reappointment comes within hours of Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara announcing the appointment of Tiemoko Meyliet Kone, the governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), as his vice president.

In a state of the nation address, Ouattara described Kone, who has been head of the regional bank since 2011, as a “brilliant economist”.

At a cabinet meeting in Abidjan last week, the prime minister said his decision to resign followed the president’s intentions to reshuffle the government.

“We have given the best of ourselves to execute your vision for 2030,” he told Ouattara.

Achi, 66, was appointed prime minister in March last year. He was the third prime minister in the West African state in the last three years after Amadou Gon Coulibaly and Hamed Bakayoko, who died less than eight months apart in 2020 and 2021.