East Africa: Region to Fight for World Bank Seat

Lawrence Maingi
 

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.

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