Pan-african parliament elects Kalu as finance committee chair

Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, has been appointed Chairman of the Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP).

The PAP is the legislative arm of the African Union (AU), consisting of 55 member states representing all countries on the African continent.

Hon. Kalu takes over from Hon. Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak of Ghana, who has been nominated as a minister in the new Ghanaian government.

The Deputy Speaker’s appointment was announced by the Acting Chair of the Committee, Hon. Senator Tony Sibandze from Eswatini, who has been presiding over committee meetings at the ongoing PAP gathering in Midrand, South Africa.

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“We received communication this morning today, actually that Hon. Benjamin Kalu from Nigeria has been assigned as Chairman of this Committee to complete the term until June,” Senator Sibandze said.

The West African Caucus had unanimously agreed to nominate Kalu as the new Chairman of the Finance Committee during their meeting in Johannesburg.

The decision of the West African Caucus was ratified on Tuesday, leading to the official announcement at the Committee meeting.

The meeting also ratified the nomination of Hon. Senator Christine Mwando Katempa from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who was selected by the Central African Caucus as Deputy Chairperson of the Committee.

Notably, Kalu, who attended the PAP meetings in South Africa, also serves as Chairman of the Finance and Administrative Committee of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament and is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Additionally, he was recently appointed to the Steering Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the IPU at the just-concluded high-profile meetings of the Union in New York, United States.