$5m prize may improve leadership in Africa: Annan

A new $5 million prize for good leadership could spur African heads of state to govern better, said former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who will head the committee making the award.

The Mo Ibrahim Prize, the world's largest such award, would make African rulers more conscious of their records on human rights and democracy, said Annan, who stepped down as UN secretary-general at the end of last year.

"I think it will energize civil society discussions and encourage the leaders themselves to understand that there is some mechanism to judge their performance," he said in an interview in Geneva, where the award's six-member selection committee met for the first time last weekend.