By Yonas Abiye
The Government of Ethiopia is going to launch a campaign to win votes for Sufian Ahmed, who is one of the candidates for the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the continental policy lending institution.
The current Minister of Finance and Economic Development of Ethiopia, Sufian, who will turn 57 in May, is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank and has already been unveiled as one of the eight shortlisted nominees.
Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Ambassador Dina Mufti told The Reporter that Sufian was nominated by the government and a series of campaigns will be launched to win the backing of member countries and the bank’s major stakeholders notably, China, India and Turkey.
Another senior government official, on condition of anonymity, also told The Reporter that before AfDB revealed its final nominees, Ethiopia had faced a tough competition from Kenya as both countries are under the same regional category in the AfDB map.
According to the bank’s criteria, only one candidate is considered from every region of the continent.
The anonymous official told The Reporter that the Ethiopian government had been engaged in lobbying Kenyan officials who later withdrew their candidate in favor of Ethiopia’s nominee.
However, pundits expect Sufian to face tough challenges especially from candidates nominated by Francophone countries.
This is the first time Ethiopia nominated a candidate for the top position. However, Tekalign Wondimu had served as VP of the bank in the 1990s.
The Steering Committee of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank met on February 11 at the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan and agreed to pick eight candidates for the election of the next President of the Bank.
Three current finance ministers in the continent have already been identified as candidates in the running to replace Donald Kaberuka.
Along with Sufian, Chad’s Kordje Bedoumra and Cristina Duarte from Cape Verde have been nominated for the position, according to a statement issued by AfDB yesterday.
The other candidates include Nigerian Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina and Mali’s Birama Boubacar Sidibe, who is Vice President of operations for the Islamic Development Bank.
The other candidates are Jaloul Ayed, a former Finance Minister of Tunisia, Thomas Sakala, a Vice President at the AfDB and Sierra Leone’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samura Kamara.
Kaberuka, 63, a former Rwandan Finance Minister, will end his second five-year term in August. The AfDB’s Board of Governors will elect the new President on May 28 during the bank’s annual meeting in Abidjan, which is the commercial capital of Ivory Coast where the bank is based.
Ethiopia’s long-serving Minister, Sufian, has been at the helm of Ethiopia’s current financial policy-making and growth-generating machinery for nearly 20 years. He has also been accredited, for pulling out all the stops to achieve double-digit growth rate in the country. Having served under two Prime Ministers he is also attributed for mobilizing Ethiopia’s human and material resources for rapid economic development.
Before he assumed the ministerial post, he was Commissioner of the then Ethiopian Customs Authority. He holds MSc in Economic Development and Planning.
Source: The Reporter
