adminEight candidates are vying to become the next head of the African Development Bank (AfDB) as the continent undergoes economic transformation.With 80 shareholders – 54 African states and 26 non-African countries – set to vote on Thursday, it is difficult to predict who will succeed Rwandan Donald Kaberuka, bank chief for two consecutive terms since 2005.
The new super-banker will take over an AfDB seeking to diversify beyond its traditional role as a development bank, which lends money for major projects – $6,8bn for as many as 317 operations in 2013.
Today Africa is seen as “a new frontier in world economic growth”, Amethis investment fund founder Luc Rigouzzo said.
The continent’s gross domestic product has doubled since the year 2000 to $2 trillion. Economists have predicted the overall African economy would expand by 4,5% this year.
In this new frontier, shareholders in the Abidjan-based bank might for the first time pick a woman, Cristina Duarte, Cape Verde’s finance minister, who would also be the first Portuguese speaker to run the bank.
Other contenders include Akinwumi Adesina from Nigeria, which rivals SA as an investors’ favourite despite fighting a six-year insurgency by Boko Haram Islamists in the north.
However, a win by Mr Adesina, Nigeria’s outgoing agriculture minister, would break an unwritten rule that regional heavyweight countries should not run the bank.
The candidates from Francophone African countries are Mali’s Birama Sidibe, an expert in development, Tunisia’s former finance chief Jalloul Ayed and Bedoumra Kordje, finance minister in Chad, who if chosen would become the bank’s first president from central Africa.
Ethiopian finance minister Sufian Ahmed, Sierra Leone’s foreign minister Samura Kamara and former vice-president of the bank Thomas Sakala of Zimbabwe round out the list.
Foreign investors will be likely to play the role of king-maker in choosing the next chief.
The US – the bank’s second-biggest shareholder after Nigeria – will have a central role in the vote, as will Japan and China.
Mr Adesina has called for “intelligent infrastructure that is more productive, more competitive”.
Mr Sidibe said the bank should act as a “financial catalyst”, not just as a lender. Ms Duarte shares a similar vision.
The winning candidate needs to secure a majority of votes from both bank members and African states. — AFP.
Online Reporter