Ex-banker Thiam renounces French citizenship to run in Ivory Coast election

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam has renounced his French citizenship to meet eligibility conditions for Ivory Coast’s presidential election in October, as his party mulls who to put forward as its nominee.

In 2023, Thiam was elected leader of PDCI, one of Ivory Coast’s main opposition parties, making him a likely candidate, but last October former trade minister Jean-Louis Billon said he would also seek the nomination.

In a video posted on Facebook on Friday, Thiam said he had submitted a request to give up his French passport, which would allow him to be exclusively of Ivorian nationality at the time of the election.

“I hereby renew my commitment to working for real change in Ivory Coast, so that the living conditions of Ivorians improve. That’s what we’re fighting for,” he said.

Thiam, 62, served as a minister in Ivory Coast under former President Henri Konan Bedie. He left the West African country after Bedie’s ouster in a 1999 military coup and worked for consultancy firm McKinsey, and insurers Aviva and Prudential, before his appointment as Credit Suisse CEO in 2015.

He returned to Ivory Coast to run in the leadership race of PDCI – the party of the country’s first president, Felix Houphouet Boigny.

President Alassane Ouattara, 83, has signalled he would like to run for a fourth term, a decision that is likely to face pushback from opposition parties, which contested his right to run for a third term in 2020.

(Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)