confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
In Kaberuka's footsteps
Blue Lines
The new President of the African Development Bank, who was being
elected as we went to press, will face harsh financial and political
conditions after a decade of economic growth on the continent averaging
5-7% a year. Outgoing AfDB President Donald Kaberuka combined a
capacity for strict financial management with experience in government
and strong views on development.
Kaberuka’s successor will struggle to match his
record as commodity prices slump and security crises plague some of
Africa’s biggest economies, such as Egypt, Kenya, Libya
and Nigeria.
The AfDB’s Chief Economist, Steve Kayuzzi-Mugerwa, agrees with
the
World Bank’s and International Monetary Fund’s lowered forecasts for
African growth of 4.5% this year.
Growing private investment raises new questions
about the AfDB’s role. Kaberuka presided over a tenfold expansion of
its private sector operations. He was also sharply critical of IMF and
World Bank policy in Africa. This year in Addis Ababa, Kaberuka praised
the decision by Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
to
disregard advice from the Bretton Woods Institutions in favour of
adapting policies from fast-growing Asian economies, such as China
and
South Korea. Asia’s rising economic power also raises more
questions
about the role of the World Bank and even the AfDB, at a time when
China is setting up development banks for Asia and the BRICS group
(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa).