The selection took place at the 2019 Annual Meetings Plenary of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, USA, last Friday.

The chairmanship is selected on a regional rotation basis each year and 2020 is the turn of Africa.

Dr Addison will preside over the 2020 plenary and other committee responsibilities.

He takes over from Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, the Fijian Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Civil Service and Communications.

Process

Through a meticulous process of selection, during which competence and a country’s standing and membership of the World Bank Group and the IMF are taken into consideration, Dr Addison was selected to represent Ghana.

Ghana was chosen in recognition of its impressive strides in macroeconomic stability achieved under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr Addison’s lead role in cleaning up the banking sector.

The position of chairman is prestigious and positively projects Ghana’s image within the international community.

The board

The Board of Governors is the highest decision-making body of the IMF.

It consists of one governor and one alternate governor for each member country.

The governor is appointed by the member countries and is usually the Minister of Finance or the Head of the Central Bank.

While the Board of Governors has delegated most of its powers to the IMF's Executive Board, it retains the right to approve quota increases, special drawing right (SDR) allocations, admittance of new members, compulsory withdrawal of members and amendments to the Articles of Agreement and bye-laws.

It also elects or appoints executive directors and is the ultimate arbiter on issues related to the interpretation of the IMF's Articles of Agreement.

Voting by the Board of Governors usually takes place by mail-in ballot.

Functions

Dr Addison will, among other things, chair other functional committees of the two institutions.

He will chair the Joint Committee on Remuneration of Executive Directors and their Alternates and also chair the Joint Procedure Committee.

His duties also include the appointment of two other committee members, on the recommendations of the President of the bank and the Managing Director of the fund, reviewing briefing papers and convening meetings of the committee.

He will conduct the 2020 Annual Meetings Plenary in the presence of delegations from the 189-member countries and the presentation of speeches on the global economy.