Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan will be joined by five international statesmen on the prize committee that will select the winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African leadership, according to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Web site.
"Annan is chairman of the prize committee, among five other eminent individuals who will nominate the winner of the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize," explains a foundation spokesman.
Mo Ibrahim, founder of pan-African mobile telecommunications giant Celtel International, established a $5 million prize, spread over 10 years and $200 000 annually thereafter, until death, to an African leader who has shown sound political governance.
The committee met for the first time this weekend in Geneva, Switzerland, says the spokesman. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation will announce the first winner of the award for achievement in African leadership on 22 October, after a committee assessment.
"The committee will draw on research from the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, and other sources, and assess every sub-Saharan African leader who has left office in the last three years on their exercise of leadership.
In an interview over the weekend, Annan said: "It [the prize] will energise civil society discussions and encourage the leaders themselves to understand there is some mechanism to judge their performance."
The prize was established in Ibrahim's personal capacity. He sold Celtel International for $3.4 billion in 2005 to Kuwaiti-based telecoms operator MTC. Ibrahim put $100 million into the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to encourage democratic governance in Africa.
Celtel grew into a pan-African telecoms company on the continent, operating in 16 countries and employing over 5 000 people. Ibrahim says Celtel is an example of a "clean company" in Africa that followed strict standards of corporate governance. "From day one we said we did not pay a single dollar in bribes."
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