NEPAD CEO Dr Ibrahim Mayaki has been appointed interim Chief Executive of the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). The decision was made at the recent AU Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Chairperson of the APRM Forum announced the appointment of Dr Mayaki who will steer the affairs of the Secretariat for the next six months as it embarks on the process of integration into the African Union.

In his address to APRM staff today, Dr Mayaki said that his main function will be to see how he can help and support the Secretariat in building management systems so that when the new CEO takes over in January 2015, they should have a something solid to support their capacities.

Dr Mayaki said his six months at the helm of the APRM will be characterised by professional, transparent and coherent decisions.

He announced a team of senior NEPAD staff, Mr Bankole Adeoye of Corporate Service, Fatou Ceesay Jallow HR, and Kossi Toulassi at Finance who will be key in supporting the APRM metamorphosis into an AU entity. The CEO said this staff complement had the significant experience based on their important involvement in processes that the NEPAD agency went through to become an organ of the AU. In addition his senior Advisers - Olusola Akinbade for Governance and Professor Tandeka Nkiwane for Inter-Institutional affairs will form part of the co-team to work with the APRM transition.

(l-r: Kossi Toulassi; Rachel Mukamunana- Coordinator of Social Economy and Governance at APRM;  Olusola Akinbade and Bankole Adeoye)

Dr Mayaki paid tribute to significant results produced by the highly professional and specialised staff at the Secretariat and said some of these results have been used effectively by the NEPAD Agency in some of its programmatic work.

Tomorrow, July 4, Liberia’s Minister of  Planning Mr Amar Konneh, who is also Chairperson of the APRM Focal Points will be at the Secretariat’s office in Midrand as well as the NEPAD Agency for meetings with Dr Mayaki and to address APRM staff

Established in 2003 under NEPAD, the APRM is an instrument to which AU Member States accede voluntarily. A country formally joins by ratifying the African Union Declaration Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) adopted in Durban in July 2002. The primary purpose of APRM is to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practices.