Rwandan finance minister Donald Kaberuka has been elected president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) during an extraordinary meeting of AfDB governors held on July 21-22 in Tunis.

Kaberuka received 78.8% of the total votes and 68.2 % of the African votes while Olabisi Ogunjobi of Nigeria, polled 20.55% of the total votes and 30.74% of the African votes, in the seventh round of balloting.

Kaberuka replaces Omar Kabbaj of Morocco who completed his 10-year tenure at the bank at the end of August.

The election had been postponed following a stalemate at the May 18-19 annual meetings of the bank group held in Abuja, Nigeria.

Kabbaj has been conferred with the title of “Honorary President of the African Development Bank “at the end of his tenure as head of the institution, “in recognition of his exemplary service to the continent of Africa”.

In conferring the title on him, the governors paid tribute to “the competence, clear-sightedness, strategic vision and leadership with which Omar Kabbaj administered the affairs” of the bank group when he assumed duties in 1995.