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IOL News
29-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
South Africa's Tshabalala is running in line up for Africa's next 'super banker'
Bajabulile Tshabalala Image: Social Media Five candidates are in the running to succeed Nigeria's Akinwumi Adesina as president of the African Development Bank (AfDB). They are: Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala (South Africa) The AfDB has only ever been headed by men but Tshabalala aims to change that. The 58-year-old South African was until the end of last year a vice president at the bank and could emerge as a continuity candidate. "Africa is at an inflection point. It's time for bold leadership that turns vision into action. I'm ready to lead the AfDB towards a more integrated, resilient, and prosperous continent," she said last month. Tshabalala wants to accelerate infrastructure development, boost private sector growth and make the AfDB more efficient. She argues that the bank must look beyond public funding to "smart finance". South Africa backs her candidacy but southern African unity could be split, as it had previously rallied behind Zambia's Maimbo. Amadou Hott (Senegal) Hott was Senegal's economy minister from 2019 to 2022 under the presidency of Macky Sall and until September last year was Adesina's special envoy for green infrastructure in Africa. But he is not necessarily a natural successor, as the position usually goes to a candidate from another region and the candidacy of Mauritania's Sidi Ould Tah will split the west African vote. In his pitch for the leadership, Hott, 52, has called for "a more inclusive, integrated and resilient Africa", positioning himself in particular as a supporter of AfCFTA, the African Continental Free Trade Area. He is also in favour of deepening relations with the private sector. Hott also wants to quicken the pace of investment in sustainable energy infrastructure using Africa's vast renewable resources. Samuel Munzele Maimbo (Zambia) Maimbo, 52, was most recently vice president for budget, performance review and strategic planning at the World Bank. He has also been chief of staff to World Bank presidents David Malpass and Ajay Banga. He will also have to contend with a split regional vote during the election, as South Africa -- one of the biggest AfDB's contributors -- is also fielding a candidate. But his experience at the World Bank could help him secure US support, which carries weight in the vote. Maimbo, who highlights 30 years of experience in development and finance, wants the AfDB to play "a leadership role" in supporting the many countries strangled by debt. Having grown up on a farm on the outskirts of Lusaka, he emphasises the importance of agricultural mechanisation and the development of the agro-industry. "Africa needs significantly higher rates of growth to successfully navigate today's development challenges and capture tomorrow's opportunities," he said in his mission statement. Sidi Ould Tah (Mauritania) Tah, who has headed the Arab Bank for Economic Development (BADEA) for 10 years, was the last candidate to declare. Several north African Arab states are members of the AfDB and if elected, his experience at BADEA could be a bridge with sub-Saharan Africa. He said in his mission statement that he had transformed BADEA into "one of the best capitalised and most highly-rated DFIs" (development finance institutions). He has vowed to strengthen regional financial institutions, assert Africa's financial independence on global markets, use population growth as a development lever and build climate change-resistent infrastructure. Tah, 60, is a former economy minister in Mauritania. Abbas Mahamat Tolli (Chad) Central Africa has never had a president of the AfDB but Tolli, a 53-year-old Chadian, could be its first. The former governor of the Bank of Central African States has served as a finance and infrastructure minister and is also proposing a transformative vision. He wants to achieve food sovereignty through sustainable agricultural investments, speed up financing for essential infrastructure, improve governance, promote renewable energies, and develop domestic financial markets.
Mint
28-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Meet the Five People Vying to Lead the African Development Bank
(Bloomberg) -- The African Development Bank, the continent's largest home-grown multilateral lender, will elect its new leader on Thursday. Five candidates are vying for the job as the institution confronts multiple challenges, including aid cuts to Africa, the withdrawal of support by US President Donald Trump and the fallout from his trade war. A rare source of long-term finance in the region, on projects that the private sector often view as too risky, the AfDB's performance and the success of its leadership is critical to Africa's future. The president of the bank, which was founded in 1964 to promote regional development, will be elected by its 81 member states to a five-year term, which can be renewed once. The winner needs to secure at least 50% of the total votes of the African member countries and 50% of the votes of all member countries. A nation's vote is based on its share of AfDB's capital. Here's a quick snapshot of the candidates: Mauritania's Sidi Ould Tah, who recently stepped down as the president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, enters the AfDB presidential race flourishing his connections to oil-rich Middle Eastern nations, which he would use to broaden the bank's funding sources at a vital moment. Earlier this month, Trump proposed a $555 million funding cut to the African Development Fund, the bank's lending arm for low-income countries. Other Western countries are pulling back on development aid to meet domestic needs, including to boost spending on defense. 'We're not really tapping all the potential of this region, which has excess of liquidity and also has many development finance institutions which are providing very low cost financing,' Tah, a former finance minister of his country, said in an interview. Senegal's Amadou Hott advocates for self help to finance AfDB's operations. Africa's wealthy individuals hold about $2.5 trillion in assets, with another $2 trillion managed by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurers, said Hott, who stepped down last year as special envoy to the AfDB president responsible for the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa. 'The real breakthrough will come when we unlock our own $4.5 trillion in domestic savings and investment capacity,' he said. Hott also backs setting up an African rating company, which is set to launch later this year, that he says can help regional sovereign borrow on cheaper terms. Chad's Abbas Mahamat Tolli wants to prioritize investment in critical infrastructure, increasing regional members' resilience to climate change and improving food security. He says the private sector must be mobilized to help fill an infrastructure funding gap the AfDB estimates at $150 billion to build the roads, railways, energy and education institutions Africa needs to ease poverty and spur development. 'The traditional resources of multilateral institutions will not be sufficient to initiate this massive volume of investment,' Tolli told the Chadian news site Tchadinfos. 'We must find ways and means to also interest the private sector in mobilizing more financing.' Tolli served as governor of the regional Bank of Central African States from 2017 until last year. South Africa's Swazi Tshabalala says the AfDB must be more 'selective in its focus.' Tshabalala, who served as the bank's vice president from 2020 until October, when she stood down to run for president, says job number one is tackling Africa's infrastructure gap. 'Unless we address that, nothing else is possible,' she said in an interview. She would fast-track infrastructure projects and seek financial support from the private sector and the AfDB's non-regional members including Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Germany. If elected, Tshabalala will be the first woman to run the AfDB in its history. Zambia's Samuel Maimbo has the backing of two regional blocs – the Southern African Development Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. He's a vice president at the World Bank, where he oversaw the record $93 billion fundraising for the world's poorest countries that closed in 2021. Maimbo was also chief of staff to World Bank presidents David Malpass and Ajay Banga. He plans to engage the US to preserve its support for the AfDB, calling Trump's recommendation to cut its funding a 'wake-up call.' The US is the third-biggest contributor to the fund after the UK and Germany and a funding cut would have 'a huge impact on Africa's development,' Maimbo said in an interview. If elected, Maimbo would start by overseeing the AfDB's latest replenishment, in which it aims to raise a record $25 billion. He would also direct financial support toward sectors that will create jobs for Africa's young population, including the local film industry. Sign up here for the twice-weekly Next Africa newsletter, and subscribe to the Next Africa podcast on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen. --With assistance from S'thembile Cele and Ntando Thukwana. More stories like this are available on
Malay Mail
26-05-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
Power, debt and self-reliance: Five contenders vie to reshape African Development Bank's future
LONDON, May 26 — Five candidates are running to become President of the African Development Bank in an election on Thursday during the lender's annual meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Tectonic shifts in global development finance — with shrinking concessional funding, cuts to wealthy countries' aid spending and whipsawing borrowing costs — have made the bank's US$318 billion capital more crucial to Africa's development. Who are they and what do they want to do? Swazi Tshabalala Bajabulile A banker with 30 years of experience, Tshabalala was, until October, AfDB's senior vice president. The South African, and sole female candidate, plans to transform the bank if she takes the helm. 'The internal structure of the institution ... doesn't facilitate the right sort of sustained focus to be able to really deliver effectively on things like infrastructure,' she said. 'We really should consolidate that.' Tshabalala said if delivered properly, infrastructure would allow Africa to tap its resources — from minerals to finance to trade. She wants to create innovative financial instruments, building on the AfDB's foray into hybrid capital. Amadou Hott Senegal's former economy minister has decades of banking experience from Lagos to London. He would focus the AfDB on African financial self-reliance by mobilising resources and designing projects to keep private money on the continent. 'Revenue mobilisation is number one,' he said. Hott said revenue collection must rise — the average tax to GDP ratio in Africa is 16 per cent, versus the OECD average of 34 per cent — which could boost credit ratings, lower borrowing costs and marshal money for pressing needs, including power and infrastructure. 'The money is out there,' he said, adding that a lack of ready-made well-structured projects that mitigated risks and delivered returns had hamstrung private sector mobilisation. Samuel Munzele Maimbo A current World Bank vice president, the Zambian has three decades of development finance experience. As president, he would launch behind-the-scenes work to aggregate data, fix the financial plumbing and streamline regulations to enable Africa's 54 nations to trade with — and finance — each other. 'Now more than ever before, we've got to get trade working on the continent,' he said. 'If we're only trading 15 per cent of our products amongst each other, our products are either rotting or they're being undervalued.' Maimbo — who has the backing of the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa — wants a continent-wide approach to everything from debt sustainability to revenue collection and infrastructure. Sidi Ould Tah Mauritania's ex-finance minister and presidential adviser has run the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa for the past decade. 'The AfDB must break free from legacy constraints and position itself as the driver of Africa's economic sovereignty,' Tah said. He is focused on four points: mobilising a broader scope of capital, reforming financial systems, harnessing demographics by formalising the 'informal sector' that employs 83 per cent of Africans and building climate-resilient infrastructure. By partnering with the private sector, other multilateral institutions and regional development banks, the AfDB can turn every US$1 raised into US$10 of productive capital, he said. Abbas Mahamat Tolli Tolli has held top financial positions across Central Africa, including as Chad's finance minister, regional central bank governor and president of the Development Bank of Central African States. He focuses on self-sufficiency — from agriculture to finance — and wants to strengthen governance to cut inefficient, untransparent spending that has mired countries in debt without development. Africa suffers a lot of financial outflows due to fiscal evasion or mismanagement of resources, he said, adding 'we need to better manage.' To make it work, Tolli envisions a 'major overhaul' of the AfDB's operational model by pooling risk, strengthening public-private partnerships and digitising financing mechanisms. Tolli said his own life — tending goats as a child after fleeing civil war aged six — mirrored Africa's journey and gave him unique insight into how to lift all those on the continent. — Reuters
Zawya
26-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Meet the people vying to lead Africa's top development bank
Five candidates are running to become President of the African Development Bank in an election on Thursday during the lender's annual meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Tectonic shifts in global development finance with shrinking concessional funding, cuts to wealthy countries' aid spending and whipsawing borrowing costs have made the bank's $318 billion capital more crucial to Africa's development. Who are they and what do they want to do? SWAZI TSHABALALA BAJABULILE A banker with 30 years of experience, Tshabalala was, until October, AfDB's senior vice president. The South African, and sole female candidate, plans to transform the bank if she takes the helm. "The internal structure of the institution ... doesn't facilitate the right sort of sustained focus to be able to really deliver effectively on things like infrastructure," she said. "We really should consolidate that." Tshabalala said if delivered properly, infrastructure would allow Africa to tap its resources - from minerals to finance to trade. She wants to create innovative financial instruments, building on the AfDB's foray into hybrid capital. AMADOU HOTT Senegal's former economy minister has decades of banking experience from Lagos to London. He would focus the AfDB on African financial self-reliance by mobilising resources and designing projects to keep private money on the continent. "Revenue mobilization is number one," he said. Hott said revenue collection must rise - the average tax to GDP ratio in Africa is 16%, versus the OECD average of 34% - which could boost credit ratings, lower borrowing costs and marshal money for pressing needs, including power and infrastructure. "The money is out there," he said, adding that a lack of ready-made well-structured projects that mitigated risks and delivered returns had hamstrung private sector mobilization. SAMUEL MUNZELE MAIMBO A World Bank vice president on a leave of absence while campaigning, the Zambian has three decades of development finance experience. As president, he would launch behind-the-scenes work to aggregate data, fix the financial plumbing and streamline regulations to enable Africa's 54 nations to trade with - and finance - each other. "Now more than ever before, we've got to get trade working on the continent," he said. "If we're only trading 15% of our products amongst each other, our products are either rotting or they're being undervalued." Maimbo - who has the backing of the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa - wants a continent-wide approach to everything from debt sustainability to revenue collection and infrastructure. SIDI OULD TAH Mauritania's ex-finance minister and presidential adviser has run the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa for the past decade. "The AfDB must break free from legacy constraints and position itself as the driver of Africa's economic sovereignty," Tah said. He is focused on four points: mobilising a broader scope of capital, reforming financial systems, harnessing demographics by formalising the "informal sector" that employs 83% of Africans and building climate-resilient infrastructure. By partnering with the private sector, other multilateral institutions and regional development banks, the AfDB can turn every $1 raised into $10 of productive capital, he said. ABBAS MAHAMAT TOLLI Tolli has held top financial positions across Central Africa, including as Chad's finance minister, regional central bank governor and president of the Development Bank of Central African States. He focuses on self-sufficiency, from agriculture to finance, and wants to strengthen governance to cut inefficient, untransparent spending that has mired countries in debt without development. Africa suffers a lot of financial outflows due to fiscal evasion or mismanagement of resources, he said, adding "we need to better manage." To make it work, Tolli envisions a "major overhaul" of the AfDB's operational model by pooling risk, strengthening public-private partnerships and digitizing financing mechanisms. Tolli said his own life - tending goats as a child after fleeing civil war aged 6 - mirrored Africa's journey and gave him unique insight into how to lift all those on the continent. (Reporting By Libby George. Editing by Karin Strohecker and Andrew Heavens)
Reuters
26-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Meet the people vying to lead Africa's top development bank
LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Five candidates are running to become President of the African Development Bank in an election on Thursday during the lender's annual meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Tectonic shifts in global development finance with shrinking concessional funding, cuts to wealthy countries' aid spending and whipsawing borrowing costs have made the bank's $318 billion capital more crucial to Africa's development. Who are they and what do they want to do? A banker with 30 years of experience, Tshabalala was, until October, AfDB's senior vice president. The South African, and sole female candidate, plans to transform the bank if she takes the helm. "The internal structure of the institution ... doesn't facilitate the right sort of sustained focus to be able to really deliver effectively on things like infrastructure," she said. "We really should consolidate that." Tshabalala said if delivered properly, infrastructure would allow Africa to tap its resources - from minerals to finance to trade. She wants to create innovative financial instruments, building on the AfDB's foray into hybrid capital. Senegal's former economy minister has decades of banking experience from Lagos to London. He would focus the AfDB on African financial self-reliance by mobilising resources and designing projects to keep private money on the continent. "Revenue mobilization is number one," he said. Hott said revenue collection must rise - the average tax to GDP ratio in Africa is 16%, versus the OECD average of 34% - which could boost credit ratings, lower borrowing costs and marshal money for pressing needs, including power and infrastructure. "The money is out there," he said, adding that a lack of ready-made well-structured projects that mitigated risks and delivered returns had hamstrung private sector mobilization. A current World Bank vice president, the Zambian has three decades of development finance experience. As president, he would launch behind-the-scenes work to aggregate data, fix the financial plumbing and streamline regulations to enable Africa's 54 nations to trade with - and finance - each other. "Now more than ever before, we've got to get trade working on the continent," he said. "If we're only trading 15% of our products amongst each other, our products are either rotting or they're being undervalued." Maimbo - who has the backing of the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa - wants a continent-wide approach to everything from debt sustainability to revenue collection and infrastructure. Mauritania's ex-finance minister and presidential adviser has run the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa for the past decade. "The AfDB must break free from legacy constraints and position itself as the driver of Africa's economic sovereignty," Tah said. He is focused on four points: mobilising a broader scope of capital, reforming financial systems, harnessing demographics by formalising the "informal sector" that employs 83% of Africans and building climate-resilient infrastructure. By partnering with the private sector, other multilateral institutions and regional development banks, the AfDB can turn every $1 raised into $10 of productive capital, he said. Tolli has held top financial positions across Central Africa, including as Chad's finance minister, regional central bank governor and president of the Development Bank of Central African States. He focuses on self-sufficiency, from agriculture to finance, and wants to strengthen governance to cut inefficient, untransparent spending that has mired countries in debt without development. Africa suffers a lot of financial outflows due to fiscal evasion or mismanagement of resources, he said, adding "we need to better manage." To make it work, Tolli envisions a "major overhaul" of the AfDB's operational model by pooling risk, strengthening public-private partnerships and digitizing financing mechanisms. Tolli said his own life - tending goats as a child after fleeing civil war aged 6 - mirrored Africa's journey and gave him unique insight into how to lift all those on the continent.
