/ 29 May 2018

Nene to chair board of governors of BRICS bank

Nhlanhla Nene
Nhlanhla Nene

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has been elected as the chairperson of the board of governors of the New Development Bank.

Nene, who was named finance minister, by President Cyril Ramaphosa in February, was elected to the position at a meeting of the bank’s leadership taking place in Shanghai, China.

At the meeting it was also announced that the board’s next annual meeting would take place in South Africa in 2019.

The NDB is a bank that was jointly set up by the leaders of the BRICS counties Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It held its first meeting in 2015.

READ MORE: The African Development Bank’s plans to usher in investment

At the meeting the bank approved loans to all five members countries totalling R20.3-billion.

The South African loan of R2.5-billion is set to go towards the Durban Container Terminal Berth Reconstruction Project.

According to a NDB media statement, the project is aimed at helping Transnet enhance the capacity of its Durban port, through the rehabilitation of container terminal berths and the upgrading of port infrastructure to provide additional slots for larger vessels. — Fin 24