SA wants Kenya to support its AfDB candidate

SA has asked Kenya to support its candidate, Swazi Tshabalala, for the Presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB), reports CNBC Africa. Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi and senior Ministry officials met Tshabalala last weekend where a formal request for support was made, Mudavadi’s office said, without revealing Kenya’s position. Tshabalala, a former African Development Bank senior vice-president, is up against four other candidates for leadership of the only African financial institution rated triple A by all three of the world’s rating agencies. She is the only female candidate. She said she was ready to help transform Africa by prioritising infrastructure development and allowing a greater role for the continent’s private sector if she was elected president next May. Tshabalala is taking on Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo, who said he has the support of the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Senegal’s Amadou Hott, a former special envoy for the bank’s Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa, Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah, ex-President of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and former Chad Finance Minister Abbas Mahamat Tolli. African shareholders hold 60% of the bank.

Full CNBC Africa report