JB appoints new Cabinet, Mkwezalamba is finance minister

Malawi President has appointed economist Maxwell Mkwezalamba as finance minister to replace Dr Ken Lipenga in a new Cabinet announced at lunch time today.
Mkwezalamba stepped down as AU Commissioner for Economic Affairs in March this year after serving the continental body for close to 8 years.
He was Commissioner for Economic Affairs since May 2004.
Mkwezalamba was highly praised by Carlos Lopes, Excutive Secretary of the United Nations Commission for Africa (Uneca) for his work at AU. Lopes described him as a man of integrity who will greatly be missed at AU.
Before being elected Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Mkwezalamba served in Malawi and the United States of America (USA) in various capacities, including Macroeconomist, World Bank, Malawi Country Office (between 2003 and 2004), as Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Malawi from 2000 to2003); and Macroeconomist at the World Bank, Malawi Country Office from 1998 to 2000 and Country Economist, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA in 1999.