Tunis — Seven candidates will be running for the office of President of the African Development Bank (ADB) Group.
The Steering Committee of the Bank Group's Board of Governors examined and approved in Tunis the candidacies of Messrs. Kingsley Y. Amoako (Ghana), sponsored by Zambia, Ethiopia and Uganda; Ismael Hassan (Egypt), sponsored by Djibouti; Donald Kaberuka (Rwanda), sponsored by Kenya and Seychelles; Simba Makoni (Zimbabwe), sponsored by South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Lesotho, Malawi and Mauritius; Theodore Nkodo (Cameroon), sponsored by Burundi; Olabisi Ogunjobi (Nigeria), sponsored by Senegal, Benin, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Mauritania; and Casimir Oye-Mba (Gabon), sponsored by Morocco, Burkina Faso, Congo, Angola, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.
The elections will be held during the Bank Group Annual Meetings, scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria on May 18 and 19, 2005.
The President of the Bank Group is elected by the Board of Governors for a 5-year mandate that may be renewed once.
The elected candidate, who will be the 8th President of the Bank Group, will be sworn in on September 1st. Mr. Omar Kabbaj has run the institution since 1995.