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Zambia’s candidate for the African Development Bank (AfDB) presidency Samuel Maimbo says he wants Africa’s premier financial organisation to help the continent achieve middle income status.
Announcing a candidacy he said was backed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Community for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA), Maimbo said Africa needed bold leadership to achieve this, citing his role in helping raise a US$90 billion financing package under the International Development Association replenishment.
“Africa stands at a critical juncture,” Maimbo said in a statement from Lusaka, Zambia. “We need to get one billion people to work as quickly as possible by strategically supporting the industries that will improve livelihoods and ignite prosperity on our continent.”
The AfDB, the only African financial institution rated triple A by Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, selects a new leader next May to replace Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina who completes a two-year term next October. He is not eligible to run again under the bank’s constitution.
Maimbo is bidding to become the second Zambian to hold the Presidency after compatriot Wila Mungomba, who led for a single term between 1980 and 1985. Senegal’s Babacar Ndiaye succeeded him and served two terms till 1995 when Morocco’s Omar Kabbaj took over, also serving two terms. Rwanda’s Donald Kaberuka succeeded him from 2005, also for two terms before Adesina’s arrival.
South Africa’s largest economy and the bank’s third largest African shareholder after Nigeria and Egypt, initially backed its national Bajabulile Tshabalala, a former Vice President of the Bank. — CNBC.
Online Reporter