At this retreat on financing the African Union, Dr Donald Kaberuka presented to the AU Heads of State a plan on how the continent could finance itself. The leaders were in Kigali last July
From South to the North – all the way to Western Africa, all regions of the continent are represented on a high level team put together by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame to design a new outlook for the continent’s operations.
After the ‘all men’ picks unveiled last month, President Paul Kagame this week named four women to his team tasked with coming up with proposals for transforming the 54-member African Union.
The four women named include: Amina J. Mohammed – Nigeria’s Minister of Environment; Mariam Mahamat Nour – the Chadian Minister of Economy, Planning, and International Cooperation; Cape Verde’s Cristina Duarte – the Former Minister of Finance and Planning, and Cameroonian economist Vera Songwe, the Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the International Finance Corporation.
The four powerful women join five men including Rwandan Dr. Donald Kaberuka, the former President of the African Development Bank, and Dr Acha Leke – a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Co.
Others are Dr. Carlos Lopes, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Strive Masiyiwa – Executive Chairman of Econet Wireless, and Tito Mboweni, former Governor of the South African Reserve Bank.
As part of becoming a self-reliant continental body by 2018, President Kagame was tasked by his counterparts during the 27th African Union summit in Kigali, July this year, to lead a reform process of the body.
Earlier this month, Kagame responded to his twitter followers asking whether his team would consist any females, that he had already been courting three women to be part of the team.
A statement issued this week by the African Union says President Kagame and his nine-member team will present the reform proposals to the 28th AU Summit due January next year.
Meanwhile, the team is scheduled to meet in the capital Kigali on 31 October this year.
