Ben Kalu appointed finance committee chair of Pan-African Parliament

Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker of the house of representatives, has been appointed as the chairman of the committee on monetary and financial affairs of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) of the African Union (AU).

Kalu succeeds Muntaka Mubarak of Ghana, who was appointed as a minister in the country’s new government.

Tony Sibandze from Eswatini, who has been serving as the acting committee chairman, announced Kalu’s appointment on Tuesday at the PAP meeting in Midrand, South Africa.

“We got communications this morning, today actually, that honourable Benjamin from Nigeria has been assigned to be the chairman of this committee to complete the term up to June,” Sibandze said.

The West African caucus was said to have unanimously agreed to nominate and submit Kalu’s name as the new chairman of the finance committee to complete Mubarak’s tenure.

Christine Katempa from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was also named deputy chairperson of the committee.

Kalu also serves as the chairman of the finance and administrative committee of the ECOWAS parliament and is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

He was recently appointed to the steering committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the IPU.

The PAP is the legislative body of the AU, founded in 2004, to ensure the full participation of African people in the economic development and integration of the continent.