British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB) has made two new appointments to its Côte d’Ivoire team, both based in Abidjan.

Patrick Porquet takes on the role of chief representative officer, and Jean-Eric Matunga has been hired as a regional relationship manager.

The pair will both report to BACB’s managing director of Africa and the Middle East, Nabil Frik.

Porquet will be responsible for driving the Abidjan representative office’s strategy, as well as acting as a senior relationship manager for clients in the region.

Having joined BACB’s Abidjan office in April 2018, he moves over from his role as regional manager for West and Central Francophone Africa.

In the 10 years prior to joining BABC, he worked at a handful of other banks in Côte d’Ivoire, including UBA Bank, Banque Régionale de Marchés, Versus Bank and Access Bank.

Meanwhile, Matunga moves from Citi, where he held different positions during a four-year stint.

He had been serving as a relationship manager in his most recent post there, responsible for handling deal origination and execution for the bank’s non-presence countries and financial institutions division in West and Central Africa.

Prior to this he worked in sales business development at Transmedical Healthcare in India, focusing on the Francophone Africa market.

Speaking about his appointment, Porquet says: “As we move through the current crisis and look ahead to the economic recovery, we want to position ourselves as trusted partners for our clients and to build BACB’s portfolio in Francophone Africa.”

Africa is expected to be hard hit by the economic impact of coronavirus and is facing the prospect of its first recession in 25 years.

Since launching in 2016, BACB’s Abidjan representative office has been responsible for deal origination and relationship management in the Francophone market, with transactions underwritten from the bank’s headquarters in London.

BACB has made two notable hires in its Anglophone Africa team recently as well, bringing in David Oberheim as director earlier this month.

That followed the hire of David Smithson, who was appointed associate director for Anglophone Africa just weeks before.