South Africa, Angola and Nigeria announced that they are putting forward Nigeria’s well-known and well-respected finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a candidate for President of the World Bank. Ngozi’s nomination marks the first time a US nominee for the Bank’s presidency will face a serious competitor, and the first serious challenge the developing world has mounted against the global North’s command of the World Bank and IMF.

In the past, the developing world has been unable to rally behind viable candidates from amongst their ranks. When Dominique Strauss-Kahn stepped down as head of the IMF Mexico put forth its highly competent finance minister, Augustin Carstens, as a candidate. Despite his stellar credentials Carstens’ nomination gained only the support of Uruguay in Latin America, and faired little better in other regions. 

Thus the consensus of South Africa, Angola and Nigeria on Ngozi’s candidacy is a breakthrough. The three nations are three of Africa’s most important financial and geopolitical players. Together they wield the most power of any Sub-Saharan nations in the World Bank, jointly electing a single Executive Director who sits on the Board, while the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa elects only two Executive Directors. South Africa is strategically placed as a BRIC country to lobby persuasively for that grouping’s support, which South Africa’s finance minister said he would do at a BRIC summit next week.

Brazil wants to nominate another highly qualified emerging market finance minister, Columbia’s Jose Antonio Ocampo, for the job. However, Columbia might scuttle Ocampo’s nomination. A Columbian already heads the Inter-American Development Bank, and Columbia has said it wants to focus on its Vice President’s bid to head the International Labor Organization, a much more attainable goal than the World Bank presidency. If Ocampo is not nominated Ngozi would have an easier time uniting the developing world behind her candidacy.

Ngozi candidacy remains a long-shot. The US controls the most votes within the World Bank, and can almost certainty count on the support of the EU, Japan and several of the other largest vote holder’s within the Bank. Yet even if Ngozi does not become president, there are positives to take away from the above developments. On a continent where unity is oft called for and sorely needed, South Africa, Angola and Nigeria have proven that collective action can be taken. And the fruit of that action - the challenge of Ngozi’s candidacy - will likely pressure on the Obama administration to respond with the nomination of an exceptional candidate that can compete with Ngozi for support in the developing world.