Dr. Akinwumi Adesina was re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank Group yesterday by the Board of Governors of the Bank. This is his second term as the President of the multilateral bank.
Adesina is a globally renowned development economist and has distinguished himself in driving a bold agenda to reform the Bank to take Africa’s development process to the next level. His first term as the Bank President commenced on May 28, 2015.
There were several “misses and hits” before getting re-elected. At the instance of the US, which is the third largest stakeholder of the Bank, an inquiry was instituted overruling the clean verdict given to Adesina by an in-house inquiry team. African leaders pledged their support to Adesina for a second term and no candidate was pitted against him for his re-election. The charges were based on the complaint made by a whistleblower that there were irregularities in awarding tenders to a few contractors and nepotism in selection to higher posts in the Bank.
The subsequent investigation that was carried out gave a clean chit to the Nigerian the other day. In the meantime, there were backroom dramas, which were being played out.Most notable among them was Nigeria upping its stake in the AfDB’s by cornering maximum number of votes in the event of an election, Since, he was the only candidate, there was no contest and was declared as a winner unanimously.
. The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and recipient of many world renowned awards and recognitions, Adesina will begin his new term on September 1, 2020.He was the only candidate in the fray and his election was announced by the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Bank, Mrs. Niale Kaba, Minister of National Planning of Côte d’Ivoire.
The Bank performed well during Adesina’s first term as the president. Various programs carried out by the Bank in different countries touched the lives of 335 million Africans, including 18 million people with access to electricity; 141 million people benefiting from improved agricultural technologies for food security; 15 million people benefiting from access to finance from private investments; 101 million people provided with access to improved transport; and 60 million people gaining access to water and sanitation.
Also, under him the Bank has maintained its AAA-ratings by all major global credit rating agencies for five years in a row. The Board of Governors of the Bank Group approved a 125% increase in the General Capital of the Bank, raising its capital from US$93 billion to $208 billion, the largest in the history of the Bank. The Bank was ranked the 4th most transparent institution globally.
