AfDB executive director visits Mozambique

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AfDB executive director visits Mozambique

12:05 CAT | 27 Jan 2017

Angop / Heinrich Mihe Gaomab peaks to the press in Luanda, Angola.

African Development Bank (AfDB) Executive Director Heinrich Gaomab begins a consultation mission visit to the country on Saturday, his first since taking office in the second half of last year.

During the four-day visit, Gaomab will hold high-level meetings with Mozambican authorities, development partners, project implementation agencies and ministries benefiting from AfDB support.

The executive director will present the new ‘High Fives’ strategy adopted by AfDB, prioritizing as development areas energy, agriculture, industrialisation, regional integration and improving the quality of life in Africa.

Mozambique has been a member of the Afdb since 1977 and has approved 62 projects totaling about US$1.7 billion, according to a press release from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, received today by AIM.

Last year, the AfDB authorized funding of about US$75 million for the first phase of the Mueda-Negomano highway in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Since its first project in 1977 in the country, the AfDB has regularly provided significant support for development efforts with a balanced distribution across several areas. Among other areas, agriculture accounted for about US$568 million, transport US$300 million, multi-sectoral projects US$629 million and water and sanitation, US$145 million.

Meanwhile, the AfDB has also been committed to a non-credit program that resulted in ESWs in areas ranging from water and sanitation such as preparation of the National Rural Water Program, a study on decentralization in the water sector and community outlook beneficiary assessment.

Agricultural development, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, public expenditure assessment and financial accountability, micro-insurance for the protection of rural livelihoods and the Action Plan for the Green Economy of Mozambique are among the other sectors and initiatives being contemplated.

Coming from Angola

Currently visiting Angola, Gaomab said on Tuesday that the African Development Bank (AfDB) will continue to support the diversification of the Angolan economy and contribute to the country’s economic growth.

Speaking to the press after a closed-door meeting with the Angolan Finance Minister, Augusto Archer Mangueira, the representative of Group II of the Southern Africa comprising Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, stressed that the priorities in Angola focus on the energy and agriculture sector.

He said that the meeting served to deepen the relationship between the AfDB and the Government of Angola, as well as discuss the current and future opportunities for collaboration and had been focused on the discussion of major projects in energy and agriculture sectors, aimed at supporting the diversification of the economy.

The Bank’s intervention priorities in Angola are guided by the strategic document that is prepared in collaboration with the Government, which defines two great priorities, namely in the energy and agriculture sector.

The visit to Angola is running from 23 to 28 January.

In addition to the meeting with the Finance Minister, he was also to meet the Angolan Ministers of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges, of Planning and Territorial Development, Job Graça, of Agriculture, Marcos Nhunga, as well as the governor of the National Reserve Bank of Angola (BNA), Valter Filipe.

Who is Heinrich Mihe Gaomab II?

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Mr. Heinrich Mihe Gaomab II is the African Development Bank Group Executive Director representing the Southern Africa Group II Constituency which comprises: Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe since 1st July 2016. Prior, He served as the Alternate Executive Director, July 2013 – June 2016.

He is the Founding Chief Executive Officer of the Namibian Competition Commission during 1st September 2009 – 30 June 2016 and served as the Vice-President of the Group of Experts on Competition Policy and Law at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Economic Development (UNCTAD), 2014-2015.

Mr Gaomab II obtained a Master’s Degree in Quantitative Development Economics from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom in 1997 and a Senior Diploma in Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management from the University of South Africa in 2003.

He served on various Boards, notably as Chairman of the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF), Vice-President of the Institute of Governance, , as Commissioner on the National Planning Commission since 2011, Member of the Vice President Council on Economic Matters during 2015-2016, Chairman of the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) during 1998 – 2006, Member of the Electoral Commission of Namibia and President’s Economic Advisory Council of the Republic of Namibia 2004-2006, Council member on the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) on Economics in 1998-2000, and Founding President of the Namibian Economic Society since 1999 and as a Director at Junior Achievement Namibia in 2015.

Mr. Gaomab II has thirty years of proven experience in economic research, corporate governance, competition law, common policy development, trade, regional integration, ethical business leadership, national planning, central banking, and quantitative modelling and forecasting. He authored and published various economic research papers that provided the basis for major economic policy decisions.

Source: AIM / Angop / Linkedin