Cristina Duarte, the Minister of Finance and Planning of Cape Verde (islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa), is one of eight candidates short-listed to chair the African Development Bank (AfDB) when its current president Donald Kaberuka’s term expires this year. And she is the only female candidate on the list.
Duarte transformed Cape Verde’s economy and is now keen on doing the same for Africa.
A graduate from the University of Lisbon in Portugal, she started her career in Cape Verde’s rural development ministry focusing on what she calls the real economy – agriculture – instead of accepting offers from the central bank and ministry of planning. This was a decision she says surprised many.
She was a part of the diaspora until the age of 15 – but this is what motivated her decision. She felt she had to understand her country well enough first, before – eventually – moving to the finance industry.
“It’s very important to understand that the financial sector exists to serve the real economy,” says Duarte.
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This she feels is sometimes not understood by some.
In 2006, she became Minister of Finance and Planning and changed Cape Verde’s public finance framework, transforming it into a middle income economy.
A difficult task? No, she says, so long as you have political commitment and engagement, as well as understand that as a civil servant, you are required to serve your people.
According to Duarte, African governments are paying more attention to the quality of institutions, and to transparency and accountability. She also says mergers and acquisitions more than doubled in 2014, meaning Africa is emerging as a business platform.
Unfortunately Duarte thinks ‘Africa Rising’ is not benefiting everyone because the continent is still facing high levels of poverty and growth without socio-economic development or structural transformation.
“I believe that African financial institutions are supposed to play a key role in financing public and private investments so that everyone works towards the same goal,” she says.
FORBES WOMAN AFRICA met with Duarte a day before the short-listed AfDB candidates were to submit a written statement about their visions for the bank.
Duarte shared the six points on her agenda. First on her list is paying attention to the quality of institutions. Second is African economic empowerment. Using an analogy from football, Duarte compares the international geo-political sphere to a championship Africa is competing in with half a team, while marginalizing the other half. This, to her, is an economic issue.
“You have 60% of the women working in the agricultural sector, the main work force, but at the same time there are frameworks that deny property rights to women.” This does not make any sense to her.
“To deny property rights you are denying financial access and to deny access to financing you are denying economic opportunities,” she says.
The third item on her agenda for AfDB is increasing value creation in Africa. She hopes to make the bank more available to participate in the industrialization process.
Fourth on her list is economic integration, as industrialization requires market size.
“So far, in my opinion, we have been building economic integration from the top down, I think it’s time to build economic integration from the bottom up,” she says.
The last two items are renewable energy, or green growth as she calls it, and a focus on the organization itself.
She speaks highly of the bank’s past presidents and how they steered the organization. She does however feel there are new challenges.
“I make myself willing and available as president to undertake the necessary reforms to strengthen the bank and to make the bank adopt a more collaborative approach and a less competitive approach,” says Duarte.
The election of the AfDB president will take place May 28 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, during the annual general meeting. The list of candidates includes Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria, Jaloul Ayed from Tunisia and Thomas Sakala from Zimbabwe.
“I’m campaigning hard because we women like to win and when we decide to do something, we just fight for it.”
She however believes this is not her only chance to contribute to Africa’s transformation.
At the end of the day, Duarte is committed to working for Africa.
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