BY David Oputah
Akinwumi Adesina, minister of agriculture and rural development until May 29, 2015, will have to beat seven other candidates on Thursday to become president of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
AfDB operates under the leadership of the president, who serves as legal representative of the bank, chairperson of the board of directors, and chief of staff of the bank. He conducts the business of the bank, under the direction of the board of directors. He is elected by the board of governors and serves a five-year term, which is renewable once.
The current president, Donald Kaberuka, a Rwandan national, was elected in July 2005, and commenced his first term on September 1, 2005. Following his re-election in May 2010, he commenced his last five-year term on September 1, 2010.
Accordingly, the board of governors will be electing Kaberuka’s successor at its ongoing annual meeting and 50th anniversary taking place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Like its constitution stipulates, the steering committee of the board of governors of the bank met on February 11, 2015, at the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan and agreed to nominate eight names, including Adesina’s, for the position of the next president of the bank.
Others are Sufian Ahmed (Ethiopia), Jaloul Ayed (Tunisia), Kordjé Bedoumra (Chad), Cristina Duarte (Cape Verde), Samura Kamara (Sierra Leone), Thomas Sakala (Zimbabwe) and Birama Boubacar Sidibe (Mali).
The election will be decided by votes from African and non-African countries with a stake in the bank.
Prior his appointment as minister in 2010, Adesina, 55, was vice president of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
He received a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University) and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University.
He worked at the Rockefeller Foundation since winning a fellowship from the foundation as a senior scientist in 1988. From 1999 to 2003, he was the representative of the Foundation for the southern African area. He is at present an associate director for food security.
In July 2007, he was awarded the YARA Prize for the African Green Revolution in Oslo. In 2008, Purdue University’s College of Agriculture gave him its Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award. In 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Franklin and Marshall College.
Although Nigeria has the largest voting power at the bank at 9.2 percent, its votes alone won’t be enough to enthrone Adesina, as the other candidates are as qualified and experienced for the position. Here are the principalities he must defeat to mount the throne.
Ahmed is the Ethiopian minister of finance and economic development, and has been at the helm of Ethiopia’s smart financial policy-making and growth-generating machinery for nearly 20 years. Since 1994, he has pulled out all the stops to achieve double-digit growth rate in his country and helped two prime ministers to mobilize Ethiopian human and material resources for rapid economic development.
He is known to many as a veteran who supervised his country’s finance through thick and thin. He is also credited with bringing a galloping inflation down to its current single digit from a peak of more than 50% in the aftermath of the disputed 2005 election.
Ethiopia is now sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth biggest economy, leap-fogging next-door Kenya, without the aid of natural resources endowment. Unlike other African fast-growing economies, agriculture, the source of livelihood for over 84 percent of the population, industry, and services are the lead-growth sectors. Ethiopia’s economic resurgence owes everything to the creative minds of the country’s economic planners.
It is reasonable to award the success of the first international bond Ethiopia, conducted in December for a total of $ 1 billion (810 million euros), to Ahmed.
The 56-year-old holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and master’s degree in economic development and planning from the Addis Ababa University (AAU). He was minister of finance and vice president of the Oromiya National Regional State from October 2000 to October 2001, and minister of finance between 1995 and 2001.
He was commissioner of the Ethiopian Customs Authority in 1995, and head of the Trade Bureau of the Oromiya National Regional State in 1993.
Born February 6, 1951 in Khniss, Tunisia, Ayed is a banker, politician and music composer. He was minister of finance from January to December 2011 in the national unity government of Mohamed Ghannouchi and Beji Caid Essebsi.
He studied at the University of Tunis, graduating in 1977 at the Faculty of Law and Economics, and continued his studies at the University of Maryland, where he graduated in 1979, with a Masters of Economics.
He was general manager of the Tunisian subsidiary of Citibank, and chief operating officer of its subsidiaries in Algeria and Libya. He became vice president of Citicorp in 1987 and then managing director of Corporate Bank in UAE in 1988. He continued his career in the same banks as managing director of Citibank, Maghreb in Casablanca, Morocco; and, country corporate officer of Citicorp-Citibank in Morocco from 1990 to 1995.
He became a senior banking officer of the “division of funds for Europe, Africa and the Middle East” within Citicorp International Ltd., London in 1996. He is managing director of the Corporate Bank from 2004.
He reorganised the Moroccan Foreign Trade Bank (BMCE), including creating merchant bank, corporate finance, the trading floor, the first offshore fund capital development and operations in new countries, including Senegal and Cameroon.
He is vice chairman of the supervisory board of the Moroccan insurance company RMA Wataniya, a member of the Moroccan-American Council for Trade and Investment, and honorary president of the American Chamber of Commerce. In 1993, he was president of the Euromed Forum.
In 2006, he founded a new subsidiary, Axis Capital Tunisia, which manages assets and allows stock market intermediation and advice. In 2010, he was vice president of the British subsidiary of BMCE.
Following the 2011 revolution, Jalloul Ayed was appointed finance minister in the national unity government of Mohamed Ghannouchi and Beji Caid Essebsi.
KORDJE BEDOUMRA, CHAD
Bedoumra, 63, serves as minister of finance and budget of the Republic of Chad since October 2013. He is responsible for the preparation and implementation of government policy in financial, budgetary and fiscal and improved public finance management system.
He also served as secretary-general of the presidency from February to October 2013. Before that, he was minister of planning, economy and international cooperation from February 2012 to February 2013. In this role, he initiated, conducted and finalised the preparation of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2013-2015.
Bedoumra initiated the methodological approach and concept note for the development of the President’s Vision of the Republic for Chad till 2025. He worked for the establishment and improvement of a climate dynamic mutual trust between the government and the technical and financial partners.
He is the source of a series of reforms that enabled Chad to get an agreement, in August, with the IMF under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF).
He has enjoyed a long international experience of a 29-year career at the AfDB, including 16 years in management positions, where he rose through the ranks to the post of vice president from March 1983 to February 2012.
His long career at bank has helped him to secure several positions of responsibility, such as leading the design and implementation of economic and social development of strong programmes and projects in Africa, and the institutional reform of the bank.
As vice-president in charge of institutional services, he led the management communications technology services and led the preparation of return of the bank to its headquarters in Abidjan, having served as secretary-general of the bank.
He holds a diploma of the National School of Telecommunications engineer Telecommunications (Sup Telecom) in Paris (France), in 1979; Electronics Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Automation of the Faculty of Sciences of the Université Paul Sabatier-Toulouse (France) in 1977 and the Baccalaureate Series C (with honors) at the Lycée Félix Eboué in June 1972 (N’Djamena, Chad).
In 2014, Bedoumra served as chairman, board of directors of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) and chairman of the Ministerial Committee for the Monetary Union of Central Africa (UMAC).
In October of 2014, he was elected the chairman of the board of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank during the Annual Meetings of these two institutions in Washington.
Cristina, the only female nominee for the job, has been the Cape Verdean minister of finance and planning for nine years.
Her academic record includes a degree in Economics from the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal, and an MBA in the field of International Finance and Emerging Financial Markets from the United States of America.
She is fluent in five languages: French, English, Portuguese, Italian and Cape Verdean Creole. Her language skills are a major asset to lead intergovernmental organizations. She has a diverse professional experience, particularly in the public administration.
She was general director of the Ministry of Fisheries and Rural Development, and in international organizations, she was a consultant to FAO, UNDP, and the World Bank.
Cristina has worked in several African countries, including South Africa, Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Mozambique. She has a deep understanding and extensive knowledge about Africa’s development issues, as well as the socioeconomic and financial challenges facing the continent.
She is also keenly aware of the opportunities the emerging global economy offers Africa and she is committed to the structural transformation of African economies and societies.
Her election would be recognition of the role of Portuguese-speaking countries in recent history of Africa and would be a great sign of encouragement for the many African women in banking institutions, as well as all women aspiring for leadership positions. Should she win, she would become the first woman president in the history of the AfDB and the first president from a Portuguese-speaking country.
She claims to have already secured the support of the Portuguese-speaking countries, and some island countries such as the Seychelles and Luxembourg.
Born on December 15, 1963 in Kamalo, Bombali District, Sierra Leone, Kamara is an economist and the current minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Sierra Leone.
He was appointed governor of Sierra Leone’s Central Bank between 2007 and 2009, a decision that local papers said had the backing of Sierra Leone’s international donors.
In late February 2009, Kamara was appointed by Prime Minister Ernest Koroma to succeed David Carew as finance minister, a position he held from 2009 to 2012.
Trained at the University of North Wales, UK, he knows the workings of international institutions, having been an executive for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington, from 2006 to 2007.
As an economist, he is reputed to have forecast that as the country endured the late-2000’s global recession, Sierra Leone would experience a contraction in economic growth during 2009 to 5.5-6%, down from 7-7.5% the previous year. He also projected slowing inflation, and the country’s foreign reserve holdings remained within limits set by its major donor, the IMF.
Sakala, 59, is an experienced Zimbabwean economist and development banker. He was vice president of AfDB, in charge of Country and Regional Programmes until his resignation in October 2014. In that capacity, he was a member of the Senior Management Team of the Bank led by President Kaberuka, contributing to its overall strategic direction and institutional performance.
He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) and an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He also undertook research work on the anticipated challenges of land and agricultural transformation in post-independent Zimbabwe at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. His early years were spent in rural Zimbabwe where he attended primary and secondary school.
Prior to joining the AfDB, Sakala worked three years as senior research and principal planning officer in the Ministry of Manpower Planning and Development in Zimbabwe, which carried out Zimbabwe’s first post-independence National Manpower Survey. He was part of the survey’s central coordinating team and was one of the architects of its major policy recommendations, many of which were implemented by the government.
Sakala has worked in, and with, African countries all through his professional career. During his rich career at the AfDB, spanning 31 years, he worked in most of the operational and institutional areas of the institution.
He has visited and worked on many development projects across the continent in agriculture, education and skills development, health, infrastructure (transport and communications, water and sanitation, energy), capacity building and governance. Besides his country of origin, he has lived in Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia and the UK. He also lived in Nigeria, including four years as the bank’s country representative.
During the four years he was in charge of the Programming and Budget Department, the bank’s administrative budget grew by about US$140 million. He is also reputed for setting up and managing country and regional offices under the decentralisation programme of the bank, thus bringing the bank closer to its clients.
He has the support of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and was selected as its candidate for the presidency in the forthcoming elections and is the only candidate from the sub region.
Sidibe, 62, a national of Mali, is the vice president of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) since January 1, 2009, where he oversees the work of several departments dealing with the IDB operations in the bank’s member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries.
Prior to joining the bank, he was managing director of Shelter Afrique, the Regional Housing Finance Institution, in Nairobi, Kenya. Before Shelter Afrique, he worked for the AfDB for 23 years and held various technical and managerial positions covering operational as well as corporate areas of the institution.
He obtained his Engineering degree from the Ecole National du Genie Rural des Eaux et Forets, Paris, France, and Master of Sciences in Water and Sanitation from the University of Montpellier, France.
He has extensive experience and fairly long exposure to development issues and challenges. He was the director of general services and procurement of AfDB and serves as director of country operations, African Development Fund, a department within the bank.
For Sidibé, a development finance institution must have a sound financial position and a great ability to mobilize the necessary resources to carry out its missions. The Malian is hailed for his innovations in the field of financial engineering.
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