The 25 member board of the World Bank meets today to decide who will be the 12th President of the World Bank since 1944 to replace the out-going Robert Zoellick. The new president will preside over a loan portfolio of $258bn and staff of 9,000 economists.

There had been three candidates for the post, Jim Yong Kim, Jose Antonio Ocampo and Ngozi Okanjo-Iweala but on Friday Mr Ocampo stood down and said he was supporting the nomination of Ms Okanjo-Iweala, in order to, “Facilitate the desired unity of the emerging and developing economies around one candidate”.

Who will be the 12th World Bank President? A foregone conclusion?

Regular readers will know that the Kenya Forum declared in an earlier posting that Ngozi Okanjo-Iweala, a former managing Director of the World Bank, is without doubt the leading candidate for the position of the bank’s chairman. However, Jim Yong Kim has President Obama’s vote, and the US, together with the Europeans and Japan, control 54 per cent of the vote on the World Bank board.

Politics says Jim Yong Kim will get it. Common sense and track record says Nigeria’s Ngozi Okanjo-Iweala should be the new President of the World Bank.