Honorable Goodall Gondwe, Finance Minister of Malawi was elected as Chair of the Board of Governors (BOG) of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) during the meeting of the Foundation’s BOG held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 3 September. Participants to the meeting also elected Chad and Sierra Leone as Vice Chairs of the Board. Honorable Gondwe takes over from Hon. Christian Magnagna, Gabon’s Minister of Budget and Public Accounts.
Hon. Gondwe is a Malawian economist who has served in the cabinet of Malawi as Minister of Finance since 2014. Previously he was Minister of Finance from 2004 to 2009, Minister of Local Government from 2009 to 2010 and Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment Affairs from 2011 to 2012.
He was a director of the Africa Division of the International Monetary Fund before returning to Malawi to work as a politician. In the period leading up to his election as Member of Parliament, he served as the Chief Economic Advisor to President Bakili Muluzi.
Hon. Gondwe was appointed to the position of Minister of Finance in June 2004 by President Bingu wa Mutharika. He has been credited for Malawi's success during Mutharika's first term. His economic development policies, together with Mutharika, helped drastically improve the economic situation in the country. Under his stewardship, the rate of inflation fell from 30% in 2005 to 6% by 2008. More importantly Malawi saw its economy grow by approximately 6 percent. In 2008, Gondwe was voted as Africa’s Finance Minister of the Year at the African Banker Awards, held at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington DC, USA.
The Board of Governors comprises representatives of ACBF member countries and non-African countries, as well as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. The Governors are usually African Ministers of Finance and/or Economic Planning, Directors-General or other high level representatives of international development cooperation agencies for non-African countries.
The Board of Governors is the highest policymaking body of the Foundation. Its main responsibility is to set the broad policies for the operation of the Foundation, as well as the appointment of the independent members and chairperson of the Executive Board. Ordinarily, the Board of Governors meets annually. The Board of Governors has a Bureau of three members, (Chairperson and two vice-Chairpersons) who are elected annually.
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