No winner for 2013 Mo Ibrahim prize for Africa governance
Sudanese-born telecommunications entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has announced there will be no winner for the African leadership prize this year. File
What you need to know:
- This is the second consecutive year the prize has not been awarded, and the fourth time in seven years since the project began.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has announced there will be no winner for the African leadership prize this year.
“After careful consideration, the Prize Committee has determined not to award the 2013 Prize for Excellence in Leadership,” Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, the Chair of the Prize Committee, said.
Responding to questions on why they chose not to do so, Sudanese Industrialist Mo Ibrahim agreed that while the criteria for the prize were stringent, it was encouraging that the award already had three laureates.
“Let’s respect the integrity of the prize committee and let them do their work,” he added.
This is the second consecutive year the prize has not been awarded, and the fourth time in seven years since the project began.
The prize, set up by Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim in 2006, carries a $5 million prize paid over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life from then on, with a further $200,000 per year available for 10 years for good causes backed by the winner.
The award goes to a democratically-elected African leader who has served their mandated term and left office in the last three years.
The past three winners are Cape Verde's former president Pedro Verona Pires who won the prize in 2011, Botswana's ex-leader Festus Mogae (2008) and Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano in 2007.
