Cotonou (AFP) - Lionel Zinsou left his lucrative job as head of European investment firm PAI Partners to become Benin's prime minister less than a year before general elections.
But don't dare suggest he is the current president Thomas Boni Yayi's anointed successor.
Boni Yayi created a stir last week when he appointed Zinsou, who holds joint French and Beninese nationality, following a government reshuffle, parachuting the 60-year-old into the post towards the end of his second term at the helm of the tiny west African nation.
In an interview with AFP in his upscale, art-filled house, Zinsou said he wanted to try to tackle people's everyday problems in the few months he has left until February-March polls next year.
"My concern is that people need light so that their children can do their homework, they need to not be flooded every time there is a relatively severe rainy season," he said, having traded his suit for the white flowing robe worn by many west Africans.
"They need all sorts of things related to school, housing, access to medical treatment."
But asked about speculation he was brought in to run for president next year in Boni Yayi's place, he bristled.
"In what big democracy have you seen a head of state say, 'Here is my successor, can you vote for him?'"
Still, his desire to meet "real people" -- he has already visited Cotonou's port, the economic hub of the country, and takes his own car to meetings -- has the look and feel of a pre-election campaign.
- Zinsou wanted to return -
Many see the appointment of the well-respected, imposing financier as an attempt by Boni Yayi to breathe new life into his administration before he steps down next year after a decade as president of impoverished Benin.
Zinsou, the nephew of Benin's former president Emile Derlin Zinsou, was until last week the head of private equity giant PAI Partners.
He had previously worked for Laurent Fabius when he was French prime minister, and did stints at multinational Danone and at the Rothschild investment bank.
The Paris-born financier will be in charge of economic development, evaluating public policy and promoting good governance in Benin.
The 10-million-strong country relies for the most part on agriculture and transit trade with its giant neighbour Nigeria.
Zinsou last year spearheaded discussions in Paris to secure billions of euros in international financing from both the public and private sectors for several big projects aimed at jump-starting economic development.
One of these plans aims to turn Benin into a major logistics platform with a deep sea port, a new airport and a railway linking Cotonou to Niger's capital Niamey.
Zinsou, who was educated at one of France's top universities, the Ecole Normale Superieure, and at the London School of Economics, said one of his tasks would be to ensure these programmes are implemented.
And if he hesitated before accepting the post, Zinsou does not admit it.
"Children, young people (from the diaspora) want to come back. It's completely different from 40 years ago when they wanted to leave, now they want to come back," he said.
"It's the same for someone like me."
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