South Africa has asked Kenya to support its candidate, Swazi Tshabalala, for the Presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi and senior ministry officials met Tshabalala at the weekend where a formal request for support was made, Mudavadi’s office said without revealing Kenya’s position.

Tshabalala, a former African Development Bank Senior Vice President is battling four other candidates for leadership of the only African financial institution rated triple A by all three of the world’s rating agencies. She is the only female candidate.

“Leadership is not about gender—it’s about vision, competence, and the courage to transform Africa’s financial future,” Tshabalala said in a statement after the meeting. “My three decades of experience and proven track record at the AfDB position me as a candidate and the right leader to steer this institution toward greater impact”.

Tshabalala served as AfDB Vice President from 2021 until last September when she resigned. Before that she held leadership roles at Old Mutual Employee Benefits, Standard Bank Group and Transnet, South Africa’s transport parastatal. From 2006 to 2014, she served as the CEO of the Industrial Development Corporation.

She says she ready to help transform Africa by prioritising infrastructure development and allowing a greater role for the continent’s private sector if she is elected president next May.

Tshabalala is taking on Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo, who says he has the support of the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Senegal’s Amadou Hott, a former special envoy for the bank’s Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa, Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah, ex-President of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa and former Chad Finance Minister Abbas Mahamat Tolli.

African shareholders hold 60 percent of the bank, with the balance owned by non- African shareholders. To win the presidency, a candidate must win a majority of both sets of shareholders. The election will be held at the bank’s annual meetings in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire next month.