SAIKOUNA E JARJU
2003 EAST SPRINGS DRIVE,WI
Summary
Strategic finance and capital markets professional with over four years of experience in sovereign financing, debt management, and fiscal sustainability. Expertise includes designing financing strategies, conducting debt sustainability analyses, and fostering domestic debt market growth. Background encompasses collaboration with international financial institutions and mobilizing innovative financing solutions to advance Sustainable Development Goals.
Overview
1
1
Certification
7
7
years of professional experience
Work History
Program Analyst – Global Institutional Rates & FX | SSA Origination
Wells Fargo Securities LLC
Charlotte, North Carolina
01.2025 - Current
- Supported sovereign, supranational, and agency (SSA) clients in accessing international capital markets through debt capital market analysis, funding strategy assessment, and fixed-income market intelligence.
- Selected Contributions
- Supported sovereign, supranational, and agency (SSA) bond origination by analyzing global funding conditions, sovereign yield curves, interest rate markets, and cross-currency financing opportunities.
- Produced market intelligence on global bond issuance, monetary policy developments, foreign exchange markets, and investor activity, enhancing decision-making for senior bankers and institutional clients.
- Developed analytical models to evaluate funding alternatives and identify cross-currency arbitrage opportunities across G10 markets.
- Assisted in structuring plain vanilla and lightly structured debt transactions, conducting financial analysis and preparing indicative term sheets to optimize pricing strategies.
- Monitored sovereign and supranational issuance pipelines, contributing to market commentary that informed client engagement and strengthened execution strategies.
- Collaborated with multidisciplinary teams across Sales & Trading, Debt Capital Markets, Syndicate, and Investment Banking to support transaction execution.
- Analyzed foreign exchange market trends to inform investment decisions.
- Conducted detailed analysis of yield curves to guide investment strategies.
- Developed financial models to assess investment risks and returns.
- Utilized Bloomberg Terminal for real-time financial data analysis.
- Supported securities program reporting for Wells Fargo Securities LLC using Excel and PowerPoint.
Financial Analyst
IOTA Foundation
Berlin
08.2023 - 07.2024
- Supported financial planning, budgeting, reporting, and process automation for an international technology organization while improving operational efficiency through data-driven financial management.
- Selected Contributions
- Expertise in conducting financial analysis for decision-making.
- Analyzed complex financial information to offer recommendations to management, thereby driving decision-making.
- Managed annual budgeting, monitored expenditures, analyzed payroll, and prepared financial reports across multiple operational units.
- Assisted in preparing financial reports and management presentations supporting strategic decision-making.
- Analyzed IOTA Foundation budgets, forecasts, and funding allocations.
- Tracked treasury movements and wallet activity for financial planning.
- Prepared monthly reports for grant spending and operational expenses.
- Supported cash flow reviews across nonprofit and protocol programs.
- Coordinated with finance and operations teams on budgeting needs.
- Monitored vendor invoices and payment requests for accuracy.
- Coordinated reconciliations and audit support, enhancing financial documentation and strengthening internal controls.
- Partnered with cross-functional teams to improve financial processes and increase reporting efficiency through automation.
- Developed automated Google Sheets integrated with Slack, enabling department heads to calculate employee costs, compare budgets, and improve financial planning.
- Drafted presentations summarizing key findings from financial analyses.
- Reviewed financial documents to ensure accuracy and compliance with laws and regulations.
- Maintained financial models for foundation planning and resource allocation.
- Experience in automating financial processes for efficiency.
- Knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning systems.
- Designed Proficient in using Tableau for data visualization. dashboards that enhanced management visibility into budget execution, expenditures, and operational performance.
- Prepared detailed reports on the financial status of clients' investments.
- Assisted senior management in preparing reports for board meetings, ensuring timely and accurate financial insights.
Senior Financial Risk Analyst
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
Banjul
10.2022 - 02.2023
- Supported development and rollout of government medium-term debt strategy (MTDS), improving sovereign borrowing decisions and long-term debt sustainability.
- Performed debt sustainability analyses (DSA) using IMF-World Bank methodology to assess debt vulnerabilities and guide financing strategies.
- Completed fiscal risk assessments, contingent liability analysis, debt portfolio benchmarking, and macroeconomic scenario modeling to inform evidence-based policy decisions.
- Supported sovereign debt restructuring discussions and financing strategies to strengthen fiscal sustainability.
- Applied expertise in sovereign debt, DSA, MTDS, fiscal policy, debt portfolio analysis, public financial management, and risk management.
- Analyzed fiscal risks across budget proposals for Ministry of Finance decisions.
- Supported government liquidity forecasting committee by coordinating key fiscal and monetary institutions to prepare liquidity forecasts for borrowing, debt issuance, and cash management decisions.
- Developed annual borrowing plans (ABP) and debt service forecasts to support domestic and external financing operations.
- Helped prepare medium-term fiscal framework (MTFF) to strengthen national budget development and fiscal planning.
- Maintained risk registers and tracked mitigation actions.
- Coordinated with departments to implement risk mitigation strategies effectively.
- Participated in negotiations and restructuring of external debt with creditors.
- Supported external debt negotiations and restructuring with creditors.
- Provided analytical support to senior government officials on sovereign financing, fiscal sustainability, debt management, and public financial management for macroeconomic stability and long-term development financing.
- Prepared briefing notes for senior finance officials.
- Served on the Treasury Bills Committee at the Central Bank of Gambia, supporting domestic borrowing operations exceeding D50 billion.
- Represented the government in technical engagements with IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank, ECOWAS, and WAIFEM to support debt management reforms and institutional capacity building.
- Provided analytical support to senior government officials on sovereign financing, fiscal sustainability, debt management, and public financial management for macroeconomic stability and long-term development financing.
- Prepared briefing notes for senior finance officials.
- Coordinated with departments to implement risk mitigation strategies effectively.
- Supported external debt negotiations and restructuring with creditors.
Financial Risk Analyst
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
Banjul
04.2019 - 09.2022
- Prepared analytical reports on debt composition, refinancing risks, interest rate exposure, and borrowing costs, informing senior management's decision-making.
- Assessed financial risks across ministry programs and public expenditure plans.
- Reviewed budget submissions for risk exposure and funding gaps.
- Monitored compliance with fiscal policies, controls, and government regulations.
- Tracked and updated government debt portfolio in Commonwealth Meridian Debt Management System, ensuring accuracy in debt recording and reporting.
- Assisted in preparing comprehensive debt sustainability analyses, medium-term debt strategies, and annual borrowing plans.
- Supported debt management operations, macroeconomic analysis, and government financing activities while building analytical capacity within the Directorate of Loans and Debt Management.
- Prepared risk reports for senior management and economic affairs teams.
- Assisted in negotiations and reporting with multilateral and bilateral development partners, facilitating effective collaboration and compliance.
- Supported production of debt statistical bulletins, financing reports, and macroeconomic analysis for national policy discussions.
- Monitored and documented changes in relevant policies affecting ministry operations and financial stability.
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
03.2020
- Nominated by Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to represent Gambia as a member of technical team at ECOWAS Commission, Abuja, to design and validate harmonized debt management framework for ECOWAS region under “macroeconomic convergence”.
Education
Graduate Certificate - Finance (Capital Markets) - IFC-Milken Institute Capital Markets Development Program
Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business
Washington, DC, USA05-2025
Master of Arts - International And Development Economics
HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences
Berlin, Germany10-2024
Master of Public Policy (MPP) - Finance & Macroeconomic Policy
KDI School of Public Policy And Management
Sejong City, South Korea12-2021
Bachelor of Science - Economics and Finance
University of The Gambia
Kanifing, The Gambia04-2019
Skills
- Public debt and financial management
- Debt sustainability analysis (DSA)
- Medium-term debt strategy (MTDS)
- Capital markets strategies
- Financial analysis reporting
- Policy analysis
- Bloomberg
- Excel
- Sustainable finance
- Report writing
- Stakeholder engagement and presentations
- Presentation Skills
- Stakeholder Engagement
Certification
- Dec 2024 Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) Course – Bloomberg, Dec 2024 Environmental, Social, and Governance Course – Bloomberg, Sept - Dec 2024 Certificate of Participation: Six-Series Training Program on Modern Securities Regulation US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Washington, DC, United States, Nov 2022 Certificate of Completion on Fiscal Risk Management for Sovereign Guarantees – Jointly Facilitated by the IMF and AFRITAC South, in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa., April 2022 Certificate of Completion on Strengthening Public Expenditure Management (PEM) and Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) for Economic Development – Facilitated by the West Africa Institute for Finance and Economic Management (WAIFEM) in Banjul, The Gambia., May 2022 Certificate of Completion on Annual Borrowing Plan (ABP) Development – Jointly Facilitated by the IMF, World Bank, and WAIFEM in Banjul, The Gambia., June 2022 Certificate of Completion on Local Currency Bond Market (LCBM) Development – Jointly facilitated by the IMF, World Bank, and WAIFEM in Banjul, The Gambia., July 2022 Certificate of Completion on Tax Policy Principles, Analysis and Revenue Forecasting – Facilitated by the IMF, in Banjul, The Gambia., May 2019 - April 2020 Certificate of Completion on Financial Programming and Policies Part I: Macroeconomic Accounts and Analysis – Online course facilitated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through Edx., April 2020 - March 2021 Certificate of Completion on Building Public Finance Capabilities Program by Applying the Problem Driven Iterative Approach – Facilitated by the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI), April 2021 Certificates of Accomplishment – Data Analytics on R, Introduction to the Tidyverse, Exploratory Data Analysis in R, Correlation and Regression in R, June 2019 Certificate of Completion on Designing Government Debt Management Strategies training at the Joint Vienna Institute, Vienna, Austria., July 2019 Certificate of Completion on Sovereign Borrowing from the Global Capital Markets: International Capital Markets training – WAIFEM, Banjul, The Gambia, June - August 2019 Certificate on Compilation Basics for Macroeconomic Statistics Online course facilitated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through Edx., Oct 2019 Certificate on Debt Sustainability Framework for LIC Countries - Jointly Facilitated by the IMF, World Bank, and WAIFEM, Freetown, Sierra Leone., Dec 2019 Certificate on Cash Flow Forecasting and Cash Management - Facilitated by the World Bank Treasury in Accra, Ghana.
SKILLS
- Languages: English (Fluent)
- French (Intermediate)
- German (A1)
- Korean (Basic)
- Data Analysis
- Presentation Skills
- Interpersonal Skills
Timeline
Program Analyst – Global Institutional Rates & FX | SSA Origination
Wells Fargo Securities LLC
01.2025 - Current
Financial Analyst
IOTA Foundation
08.2023 - 07.2024
Senior Financial Risk Analyst
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
10.2022 - 02.2023
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
03.2020
Financial Risk Analyst
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
04.2019 - 09.2022
Graduate Certificate - Finance (Capital Markets) - IFC-Milken Institute Capital Markets Development Program
Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business
Master of Arts - International And Development Economics
HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences
Master of Public Policy (MPP) - Finance & Macroeconomic Policy
KDI School of Public Policy And Management
Bachelor of Science - Economics and Finance
University of The Gambia