The Nouvelle Banque de Mauritanie (NBM) is looking to get back on the right foot following the recomposition of its shareholding resulting from the takeover of the establishment by Westbridge Mortgage REIT, a financial institution specializing in real estate financing in Canada.

For this purpose, it has just presented its new directors selected at the end of the Combined General Meeting on 22 May 2020 “for their leadership, their vision and their desire to participate in Mauritania's development”, according to a statement from the bank.

Appointed directors for terms of four years, James Clayton, Chairman of the Board of Directors, JD Diabira, CEO of Westbridge Mortgage REIT, Jacques Raiche, director and Maître Sylvère Koyo, director, will have the difficult task of getting a bank back on the ground in a context of economic crisis exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NBM press release states that “the General Assembly approved the appointment of three (03) other directors who will be co-opted shortly” and that this “recomposition of the Board of Directors will now meet the requirements of banking regulations in terms of the governance of credit institutions.

For James Clayton, the new Chairman and also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Westbridge Mortgage REIT, “the advent of world-class oil and gas production, the shortage of adequate housing and real estate, and the vision of revitalizing the microfinance sector in Nouakchott are major catalysts helping to stimulate unprecedented economic growth in the country.”

From 2002 to 2014, Westbridge was a subsidiary of the mortgage securitization firm Riskmont Institutional Loans Trading, a group that was sold to American interests in 2013. Since 2014, it has operated as Westbridge Mortgage REIT with bases in Ottawa and Calgary

Today, the group's expansion in Africa is reflected through its Westbridge Africa Holding.