Dr. Nabil Ghalleb

Dr. Nabil Ghalleb is the Regional Director and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group Regional Hub in Dakar, overseeing the Bank’s operations and strategic engagement across nine countries in West Africa.

With more than 20 years of international experience, Dr. Ghalleb has built a career at the intersection of development finance, economic empowerment, impact investing, Islamic finance, and MSME development. Prior to his current role, he served as Director of the Economic Empowerment Department at IsDB, where he led the institutionalization of the Bank’s economic empowerment agenda across member countries and contributed to the mobilization and management of major financing initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and job creation.

Dr. Ghalleb is also the Founder and former CEO of Zitouna Tamkeen in Tunisia, widely regarded among the pioneering participatory microfinance institutions in North Africa dedicated to economic empowerment and entrepreneurship support. He also founded the International Center for Economic Empowerment (ICEE), an initiative aimed at promoting and replicating the economic empowerment and participatory microfinance model in several African countries, as well as the NGO Tamkeen for Development focused on vulnerable youth and underserved communities.

Throughout his career, Dr. Ghalleb has held executive, investment, governance, and advisory responsibilities across international financial institutions, investment funds, and development initiatives. He has also served on the boards of several banks and financial institutions, as well as on high-level committees related to banking, investment, financial inclusion, and economic empowerment.

Alongside his professional responsibilities, Dr. Ghalleb has remained active in academia, research, and international dialogue platforms. He is a frequent speaker at regional and international forums on sustainable development, Islamic finance, financial inclusion, and economic transformation, and has published research papers in in peer-reviewed journals. 

Dr. Ghalleb holds a Ph.D. in Finance and a Master’s degree in Financial Engineering, both with honors from HEC Montréal, University of Montreal, Canada. He has also completed executive programs and professional certifications in impact investing, valuation, governance, leadership, and Islamic banking.