Ncube bids to lead African Development Bank

THE African Development Bank's chief economist Mthuli Ncube is making a bid to head the bank, taking over from current President Donald Kaberuka whose second five-year term expires next May.

Ncube, a native Zimbabwean and naturalized South African, is lobbying South Africa's finance minister and other officials for the country to nominate him for the post.

A spokeswoman in South Africa's finance ministry on Monday said only that the government will discuss succession at the bank with its neighbours in the Southern African Development Community.

If South Africa agrees to nominate Ncube and convinces enough powerful African nations to back him, he would become its first president from southern Africa since the 1980s.

Ncube, who has been the pan-continental lender's economist since 2010, said he would focus on policies to spread the benefits of Africa's rapid economic growth to the majority of its billion citizens who remain poor.

He also said his tenure could support South African President Jacob Zuma's ambition to play a larger role in African diplomacy.

"I view it as a way to leverage South Africa's strength to help the rest of Africa, but of course South Africa benefits in the process," Ncube said in an interview.

The bank's presidency is a high-profile position atop one of Africa's few home-grown multilateral institutions, he said.

But as one of the continent's richest countries, South Africa could face a backlash from other powerful African nations eager to secure the plumb post for themselves, said Catherine Grant, head of economic diplomacy at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

That is what happened in 2012 when Zuma campaigned to install his ex-wife in the African Union's top job.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a popular former foreign minister, won the support of enough countries to assume a four-year term as head of the bloc's executive, but not before offending the leaders of Rwanda, Nigeria and other nations who said South Africa shouldn't have breached a long-standing agreement to keep the coveted post with a less influential African nation.

"South Africa has broken the gentleman's agreement of the big players not going for these leadership roles," Grant said.

Founded 50 years ago, the African Development Bank invests about $8 billion annually in projects to foster economic growth and alleviate poverty across the continent.

It collaborates and competes with international organisations like the World Bank and private-equity firms taking a new look at Africa and its nascent consumer class.

It also is embracing new partnerships. Last month China said it would invest $2 billion through the bank, the first time Beijing will route some of the nearly $30 billion it has invested in Africa through a multilateral institution.

"We saw an opportunity to innovate," said Ncube, who earned a Ph.D. in financial economics from Cambridge University and was dean of the business school at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand before joining the bank in 2010.

"We're looking for new types of funding that can be brought to bear on Africa's problems."

Other candidates to succeed Kaberuka are expected to step forward next month. Through his office, Kaberuka, who is from Rwanda, declined to comment on the contest to succeed him.

African policy makers who attended the bank's annual meetings last month in Kigali, Rwanda, said at least a half dozen others are planning to run, including Nigeria's Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina and Ethiopia's Finance Minister Ato Sufian Ahmed.

Nkosana Moyo, the bank's former chief operating officer and Zimbabwe's former trade minister, said Ncube could face an uphill battle convincing South Africa to back him against candidates whose nations don't already hold a top post on the continent.

"South Africa is quite interested in creating more African solidarity as opposed to sowing divisions," Moyo said. "They must really think it through carefully before support is given to a southern African candidate."