Akinwunmi Adesina, agric minister

Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister, Akinwumi Adesina, and Ethiopia’s Finance Minister, Sufian Ahmed, are among the five candidates who have been shortlisted to contest the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Bank said on Friday.

The AfDB Board said the selection of the most eligible candidates to succeed President Donald Kaberuka was done by a Steering Committee of the Board of Governors at a meeting held in Abidjan on 11 Feb.

Cape Verdean Finance Minister, Cristina Kamara, currently Vice President of the Islamic Development Bank, Birama Sidibe and Chad’s Finance Minister, Kordjé Bedoumra have also been shortlisted for the elections slated for May 2015.

Report says Kaberuka is currently serving his second five-year term as AfDB President.

Donald Kabureka: retires in May

He was first elected in 2005 as the seventh President of the Bank Group since its establishment in 1963.

However, he was re-elected in May 2010 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, for a second five-year term.