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· Nigeria has upped its voting rights in the African Development Bank (AfDB) to 16.8%.
· Akinwunmi Adesina, Nigerian President of AfDB is seeking re-election to the bank’s presidency after being cleared of allegations of wrongdoing
· Africa’s largest country by population emerged the biggest rights holder by far far ahead of the rest
· Nigeria is followed by non-regional members like Germany with 7.4% and the US with 5.5%.
Nigeria has upped its voting rights in the African Development Bank, (AfDB) to 16.8%. Akinwunmi Adesina, Nigerian President of AfDB is seeking re-election to the bank’s presidency after being cleared of allegations of wrongdoing. Africa’s largest country by population emerged the biggest rights holder by far far ahead of the rest. Nigeria is followed by non-regional members like Germany with 7.4% and the US with 5.5%.
Nigeria increased its voting rights by paying subscriptions it had pledged as part of a general capital before the January deadline. The move may enable Nigeria to help keep Adesina as the president for another five-year term. The voting will take place on 27 August.
Adesina is the only candidate this time around. In 2015, when he contested first, he was pitted against Chadian Finance Minister Kordje Bedoumra and Cape Verde’s Agriculture Minister Cristina Duarte. This year’s routine annual meetings will take place virtually from 25th to 27th August. They were to take place in May but were postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
In July, an independent panel conducted an investigation on the charges against Adseina and found no evidence of malfeasance against him in his bid to seek re-election as head of the bank.. Earlier, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who did not accept the institution’s ethics committee’s original report led to the probe. A whistleblower accused Adesina of awarding acquaintances and nepotism in appointments to key positions. In March, the AfDB issued a US$3 billion social bond to assist African nations in dealing with the impact of the pandemic. The bank also set apart a US$10 billion crisis-response facility for African nations. AfDB’s shareholders are all African countries (54) and 27 countries in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Asia.
