User:AlexisFlemming/Desire Dallo

Early life
In 1979, Désiré Dallo obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physics at the University of Cocody-Abidjan. He then attended the prestigious Ecole Supérieur d'Electricité (Supélec) and secured an electrical engineering diploma two years later. Désiré Dallo also furthered his education in the United States. From 1981 to 1984, he obtained a masters degree in Engineering Management and in Industrial Engineering from USC and Stanford University, respectively.

Beginnings with Unilever
In 1984, Desire Dallo returned to Cote d'Ivoire and began his career as Research Engineer with Blohorn-Unilever. After several years of intense formation in Great Britain and Ghana, he was transferred back to Abidjan and promoted R&D director in 1988.

Manager
He was appointed Plant Director of the Ivorian Company of Oil Seeds Trituration and Vegetable Oil Refinery (Trituraf S.A) in 1996, then became the Technical Director of Blohorn-Unilever a year later. Five production plants were under his direction supervison; Trituraf in Bouaké, the Vridi and Saprocsy plants in Abidjan, PHCI in Kossou, and SPCN in Niger.

In 2000, Desire Dallo left Unilever and joined SIPF, the Ivorian Railway Company, for two years.

Political career
In December 2010, Gilbert Aké N'gbo appointed Désiré Dallo as Minister of the Economy and Finance in the Ivorian government. His mandate was characterized by considerable challenges such as an embargo on medical supplies and the freeze of the government assets. As a matter of fact, there was a controversy in regard to the real winner of the 2010 presidential elections of Cote d'Ivoire. Laurent Gbagbo was declared winner by the Supreme Constitutional Court after it had annulled 10% of the ballots as illegitimate. Alassane Ouattara, his opponent and former IMF economist, had the support of the international community. With limited resources, Desire Dallo and his team achieved to:


 * Save the Ivorian banking system after the closure of several prominent banking institutions like French PNB Paribas and US Citibank. The banks needed to be relaunched so as to allow all civilians to dispose of their assets at their convenience and to perceive their salaries.
 * Meet the commitments of Côte d'Ivoire to its creditors (Paris Club and London Club in particular) by servicing the external debt, as agreed.

By march 2011, all civil servants without exception had perceived the totality of their wages despite the multiple sanctions imposed on Cote d'Ivoire, and the weakness of the country's economy at that time. The budget proposed by Desire Dallo's team for that year was 2907 billion CFA francs, as opposed to 2897 billion CFA francs in 2010. It was balanced in resources and expenditures, and designed to facilitate poverty reduction strategies.