Nairobi — East Africa member countries are to form a common front in the fight to secure nomination to the recently created third African seat in the World Bank Group.

The position was created as an additional African chair to the current two as a way of increasing fairer allocation of board seats but more so to endear the bank to countries on the continent.

The move by the financier is part of the wider reforms meant to shift the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund power from developed countries to their developing counterparts.

This, the bank says, will go towards increasing its effectiveness and making it accountable to less developed countries.

"We have agreed on the need for concerted effort to fight together...," said Kenya's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta citing a meeting held by the East African Community ministers.

Mr Kenyatta was addressing a joint press conference with other East African Community member countries' Finance ministers and central bank governors in Istanbul, Turkey after the 2009 IMF/World Bank annual meeting.

Developing nations are pushing developed countries to cede at least 5 per cent of IMF voting and at least three in the World Bank to go to the under-represented countries - mostly in China, India and Brazil.

According to World Bank President Robert Zoellick and the IMF managing director Dominique Klauss-Khan, the third seat should help Africa push for increased regional infrastructural funding programmes.

Raised concern

African leaders attending the AGM had raised concern that their infrastructure development is being under-funded resulting to its products becoming less competitive in the global market.

The leaders noted that though the continent needs to invest at least Sh3.2 trillion ($40 billion) annually to develop its infrastructure, it is only getting a merger Sh480 million ($6 million) from its traditional overseas development partners.