Goodall to chair African capacity building foundation

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe was on Thursday elected chairperson of the board of governors of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) at its meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

ACBF is a knowledge hub on capacity development interventions on the African continent.

Participants to the meeting also elected Chad and Sierra Leone as vice-chairpersons of the board.

Gondwe, who takes over from Christian Magnagna, Gabon’s Minister of Budget and Public Accounts, was nominated by Zimbabwe and voted into office through a unanimous vote of the delegates. He was represented at the meeting by Samuel Tembenu, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Tembenu thanked the delegates for the vote of confidence and expressed Malawi’s strong commitment towards supporting the good work by ACBF of building capacity on the continent.

Gondwe, a renowned economist, served as 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.

Prior to that, he was also a director of the Africa Division of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before returning to Malawi to work as a politician.

Gondwe was appointed to the position of Minister of Finance in June 2004 by late President Bingu wa Mutharika.

“Under his stewardship, the rate of inflation fell from 30 percent in 2005 to six percent by 2008. More importantly, Malawi saw its economy grow by approximately six 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,” said a write-up.