Africa CDC announces spate of appointments in wake of deputy departure

Longtime staffer Dr. Raji Tajudeen has been appointed as acting deputy director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier this week, the head of Africa CDC, Dr. Jean Kaseya, told staff that his acting deputy director-general, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, would resign at the end of the month. On Thursday, Kaseya told staff, in an internal email seen by Devex, that Tajudeen would serve as his replacement in the meantime before the formal appointment for that position is made. Tajudeen, who served as head of public health institutes and research at Africa CDC, has been with the Pan-African public health agency since 2019. Before that, he served as head of the pediatric unit at the directorate of medical and health services at the African Union Commission since 2010. He is Nigerian. Ouma has also worked at Africa CDC since 2019 — serving as both deputy and acting head of the organization before Kaseya took on the role. However, he wasn’t able to apply for the position of deputy director-general due to AU country quotas that aim to ensure regional representation in the organization. Candidates from 32 African nations were able to apply but he couldn’t because Kenya, his country of birth, was not on the list. The quota for director positions from the East African country was already full within the AU, a spokesperson told Devex. Although Ouma initially came to the organization as deputy director in 2019, Africa CDC is amid a transition from its previous structure as a specialized technical institute of the AU into a public health agency — in a move to give it more autonomy. And because of this — the deputy director-general role became a new position, which led to a recruitment process. While Ouma was offered another position within Africa CDC, he decided to instead resign. In a LinkedIn post published on Thursday, Ouma said his decision to leave was because “the time has come for me to pursue my professional and personal growth elsewhere.” He added that the decision wasn’t driven by his inability to participate in the deputy director-general recruitment processes. Kaseya also announced other new appointments on Thursday, including To Michel Irie Bi from Cote d’Ivoire as director of administration; Omar Rakib from Morocco as director of finance; Jacques Mukwende from Rwanda as senior adviser in strategic partnership and resource mobilization; Bethlehem Arega from Ethiopia as senior legal officer; Daudi Mkoma from Tanzania as head of human resource management; and Jama Gulaid from Somalia as strategic adviser to the director-general. Africa CDC has been on a hiring spree in recent months, filling a host of positions — following African leaders granting it the ability to expand its staff size last July.