Samoura Kamara
Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to Senegal has told the Ivorian ambassador in that country that their candidate for the presidency of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Samura Kamara “is the most qualified considering his credentials”.
The current and 7th elected president of the Bank, who took up office on September 1, 2005, was the former finance minister of Rwanda. Donald Kaberuka leaves office next year after he would have served his second five-year term.
Ambassador Khadijatu Bassir said Dr. Kamara, who is the foreign affairs minister and one time minister of finance and economic development of Sierra Leone, has “a wealth of experience working in the international financial system that he will bring to the AfDB job”.
The envoy, who is also the Dean of ECOWAS group of Ambassadors in Dakar, told her Ivorian counterpart, General Kassarate that Abidjan “must urgently consider re-opening its embassy in Freetown to further strengthen the bilateral ties between the two Mano River Union countries”.
She said cooperation among the four Mano River Union countries was the only instrument by which the sub-region could be developed, and urged her counterpart to raise the issues with his government, noting that her own government under the leadership of President Ernest Bai Koroma had always wanted “to ensure the free movement of people and goods within the MRU”.
The Ivorian Ambassador thanked Ambassador Bassir for receiving him at short notice and promised that he would inform his government back home on all they’d discussed and would ensure that they were given the necessary attention.
The Bank is a multilateral development finance institution established to contribute to the economic development and social progress of African countries and with a mission to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent through promoting the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of the region.
Member governments are officially represented at the AfDB by their minister of finance, planning or cooperation who sits on the AfDB Board of Governors.
(C) Politico 26/02/14
