As a young child, Jane Feehan spent time in Malawi in east Africa. Her father was teaching geology at the Kamuzu Academy there and Dr Feehan’s first experience of education was at a local primary school. Perhaps this early introduction to Africa is why she quickly felt at home when she moved to Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in 2019 as head of the European Investment Bank’s regional hub for West and Central Africa.
Feehan lives in Abidjan with her husband and three children. “Because of the climate, there is a wonderful freedom to life here. You don’t have to layer up as it’s always shorts-and-sandals weather and even if it rains you dry out quickly,” says Feehan who adds the three essentials she never leaves home without are sunglasses, a fan and a hat.
Feehan describes herself as a “development banker” who got there via a somewhat unusual route. Initially, she studied biological sciences at Oxford University followed by a master’s in biodiversity and taxonomy at Imperial College in London and a PhD at Trinity College Dublin in rural environmental management. After graduation she worked with both the Irish and European environmental agencies before joining the European Investment Bank (EIB) as a forestry and rural development specialist.
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In 2017, she moved over to the investment side of the house as an environmental and climate finance specialist and two years later she was appointed EIB bureau chief for West and Central Africa.
“The EIB is best-known for its work within the EU. Since Ireland’s accession in 1973, the EIB has extended some €21 billion in support to hundreds of Irish public and private sector projects. However, we also lend and invest in Africa and have been doing so for nearly 60 years,” Feehan says.
“Every year we sign about €4 billion in new financing for public and private sector projects on the continent of Africa. These low interest loans support transformative infrastructure projects across the energy, transport, telecoms, water, health and pharma sectors as well as climate change initiatives and providing access to finance for underserved groups, particularly women entrepreneurs.
“Our active portfolio across the 23 countries covered by our West and Central Africa office currently stands at around €6 billion.
“West Africa is dynamic, diverse and full of contrasts and contradictions. You have the big bustling international cities along the lush green Gulf of Guinea, thriving commercial hubs with modernity and sophistication and then the poverty and chaos of rapidly growing cities,” Feehan adds.
“You have big agricultural economies such as Côte d’Ivoire, which is the biggest producer of cocoa and cashews worldwide, major centres of cotton production in Mali and Benin, gold mining in Ghana and ancient trading hubs in the Sahel where the Niger river meets the trans-Sahara transport routes. And then of course you have Nigeria – an economic and cultural superpower with its 200 million people, vast wealth and resources, its fintech sector and its ambitious, innovative culture.”
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When people hear where Feehan lives, they often ask if she has met its famous son, footballer Didier Drogba. “I have because when he heard I was Irish he came across to talk to me,” she says. “Ireland and Ivory Coast have similar flags and he told me that, several times, when he was draped in the tricolour, people said to him ‘Oh Mr Drogba I didn’t realise you were Irish,’ so we had a good laugh about that.”
Business in Feehan’s region is done in a wide range of languages including French, English, Portuguese, Wolof, Bambara and Yoruba and business culture and protocols differ widely.
Côte d’Ivoire is a formal society so the dress code is business suits or formal traditional dress whereas in neighbouring Burkina Faso work attire is more casual. In some meetings there is a hierarchy to the order in which people sit and speak while in others it is customary to start and end with a prayer.
“It is important to be aware of the different cultural traditions and mindful of how things are done here. If there is a particular way to raise a sensitive issue for example,” Feehan says. “You also have to really listen as governments will always have their say, but we need to hear from the local stakeholders as they are the ones who will be affected by the projects we finance.”
Before moving to Africa, Feehan lived in Luxembourg and one thing the family misses is cycling as in Côte d’Ivoire the car is king. However, there are other compensations, including enjoying the mango and passion fruit seasons as they happen.
“I also love being able to stop at the coconut vendor on the way home from tennis with the kids and watch as he chops the top off with a machete, pops in a straw and you have gorgeous refreshing coconut water to drink,” she says. “I didn’t know what to expect when we moved here but I can sum it up by saying that it’s very multicultural, very vibrant and very outdoors-orientated, despite the heat and humidity.
“In Africa you learn to appreciate the here and now because things deteriorate very quickly in the tropics. For example, anything in the kitchen with a rubber handle or seal will perish. The cycle of life happens faster too. You live in the moment because you literally don’t know what the next rainy season will wash away.”
