The next president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), one of the five large multilateral development lenders in the world, faces the task of mobilising resources to accelerate inclusive economic growth, addressing the huge infrastructure gap, and strengthening the bank’s role as a voice for Africa.

This is in addition to building human capital, and combating climate change and epidemics.

The AfDB will elect its next president in May, in Abidjan. The candidates in the running are from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Chad, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Mali.

“They will be coming to office at a time when Africa is in a different place. African countries now have access to capital markets, and they are increasingly involved in their own domestic mobilisation. Africans are looking for an institution to be the centre of that leveraging. They have to work on a funding model,” said outgoing president Donald Kaberuka, who steps down after presiding over the bank for a decade.

Mr Kaberuka became the seventh president of AfDB in 2005; the bank was established in 1963. A key challenge for the incoming president will be mobilising resources to fill the gaps in infrastructure investments across Africa.

The estimated financing requirement to close Africa’s infrastructure deficit is $93 billion annually, until 2020.

Currently, less than 40 per cent of the continent’s population has access to electricity, about a third of the rural population has roads, and only 5 per cent of agriculture is under irrigation, according to AfDB estimates.

The situation is no better for social infrastructure, with only 34 per cent of the population having access to improved sanitation; and slightly better for clean water at about 65 per cent.

Mr Kaberuka, a Rwandan who served as his country’s finance minister from 1997 to 2003, said mobilising domestic resources for the implementation of Africa’s Agenda 2063 will be a major task for his successor.

He said African governments have a wide range of policy options that could open up new sources of finance, like taxes, sovereign and pension funds.

African countries are now accessing capital from China, which recently set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

“Asians are creating their own institution to compete with the World Bank and the Europeans are joining. It is only America that is reluctant to join. I’m not saying there is competition, but African countries now have a variety of choices — these institutions are at the centre of helping them access resources,” Mr Kaberuka said.

Legacy

Under Mr Kaberuka’s leadership, AfDB’s portfolio allocated more than half of its funds to infrastructure, mainly in energy and transport. Demand for bank lending grew, and the institution focused on promoting the private sector and regional integration.

Mr Kaberuka is credited with managing the finances of the bank efficiently, as well as becoming a leader and a voice for the continent on global issues.

“It is hypocritical for Western governments, who have funded their industrialisation using fossil fuels, to say to African countries: ‘You cannot develop dams, you cannot develop coal, just rely on these very expensive renewables,’” he said at the Africa CEO Summit in Geneva in March.

During Mr Kaberuka’s term of office, the AfDB has become Africa’s premier financial institution. In 2009, in response to the global financial crisis, the African Development Bank Group made record approvals of loans and grants totalling more than $12.6 billion.

And for Trevor Manuel, the former South African minister of finance, Mr Kaberuka has largely succeeded at winning the confidence of African governments.

“His tenure also covered the period of the financial downturn but he managed the credit rating of the institution, and the commitment of African leaders to the institution,” Mr Manuel said.

Who will take over?

The big question now is who will replace Mr Kaberuka when his term ends on September 1. The candidates from Chad, Cape Verde, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe are seen as favourites for the job.

The voting power of each member country is based on payments of subscriptions. The voting power is also split between regional (African) and non-regional (donor) member countries. Statutorily, this is fixed at 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

To win, a candidate must get a double majority, that is the majority of all shareholders (50.01 per cent), as well as that of the regional member countries (30.01 per cent).

Zimbabwe’s Thomas Sakala is seen as a strong contender after being selected from among three candidates interviewed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministerial panel. SADC has a shareholding of 15.042 per cent.

Nigeria’s candidate, Akinwumi Adesina, is supported by the fact that the country has the biggest African shareholding at the bank — approximately 9 per cent.

Cape Verde’s Minister for Finance and Planning, Cristina Duarte, is seen as a favourite because of her good track record as finance minister and wide experience having worked with multinational institutions. She is the only female candidate.

Chad’s Minister for Finance and the Budget, Kordjé Bedoumra, with 29 years of experience working with the bank is representing Central Africa, a region that has never occupied this position.

“This position gives a person a lot of power. If you use that power to empower the member states, especially the regional members, and remain focused on the agenda to raise the living standards of the people on the continent, it becomes easy,” Mr Manuel said.