Ousmane Issoufi Maïga (born 1946) was the Prime Minister of Mali from 2004 to 2007. Issoufi had previously held several ministerial posts in previous governments. Issoufi was born near Gao, in the north of Mali. He studied economics at the University of Kiev (Ukraine - at the time part of the USSR) and then at the American University in Washington, DC, where he graduated with a degree in banking and finance. He has worked for the World Bank and in the French Ministry of Finance, where he was Assistant Director of the Caisse autonome d’amortissement (Autonomous Debt Financing Fund).