Patrick Achi
Center for International Development Senior Fellow, Harvard University and former Prime Minister, Cote d’Ivoire
Expertise on:
Institutions
Mr. Patrick Achi, Former Prime Minister, Head of Government, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. Patrick Achi was appointed Prime Minister, Chief of Government, from March 2021 to October 2023.
From January 2017 to March 2021, he was Secretary General of the Presidency and Executive Secretary of the National Council for Economic Policy, in charge of preparing the Vision 2030 Strategic Development Plan of the country, with key emphasis on growth, food security, youth employment, human resources, and environment.
During the preceding 17 years, from 2000 to 2017, he was Minister of Economic Infrastructure in charge of roads, water infrastructures, ports, airports, and railways development. He developed close ties with key DFI’s and implemented major PPP projects.
He started his career in the public sector as advisor to the Prime Minister’s office in 1998 in charge of reforming the cocoa sector (1 million farmers, 15% of Export revenue) and Advisor to the Minister of Energy in charge of the reform and the development of the electricity sector in 1999.
Before his career in the public sector, Patrick Achi started his professional life in the private sector, as a consultant with Arthur Andersen in their Paris office in 1983 for 5 years. In 1988 he relocated to the Abidjan office Consulting Division covering operations in the Francophone countries of West and Central Africa. He developed an expertise in Information Systems in Banking and Services sectors, project management, restructuring parastatals and public administration reforms.
Prime Minister Achi is also politically involved at both the national and regional levels. He is currently an Executive Board member of the ruling party, the RHDP, member of the Ivorian Parliament (since 2011, 3rd Term) and President of the Regional Council of La Mé (since 2013, 3rd term).
Prime Minister Achi holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Université de Cocody in Abidjan, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from École Supérieure d'Électricité de Paris (SUPELEC), a Certificate of Economy from University of Paris 1- Sorbonne, and a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University, California.
