President Akinwumi Adesina was sworn in for his second term as head of the African Development Bank, whose priorities he recalled. Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Kenneth Ofori-Atta, becomes Chairman of the Board of Governors.
In 2021, the Annual Meetings of the AfDB (African Development Bank) will be held in Accra, the capital of Ghana. It is therefore quite natural that Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance of Ghana takes the presidency of the Board of Governors, succeeding Ivorian Minister Kaba Nialé.
Born in 1959 in Kibi, Kenneth Ofori-Atta is a Ghanaian economist, investment banker and politician. Ghana’s Minister of Finance since January 27, 2017, he notably held the position of Executive Chairman of the investment bank Accra Databank for twelve years. In political matters, he led the fundraising campaign for President Nana Akufo-Addo’s New Democratic Party (NPD) during the last presidential campaigns.
The Board of Governors is the highest decision-making body of the AfDB, in which each member country is represented by a governor and an alternate governor. Each governor has a number of votes proportional to the capital of the Bank subscribed by his country. They are usually finance or economic planning ministers, central bank presidents or other senior officials.
On September 1, 2020, Kenneth Ofori-Atta presided over the inauguration ceremony of the President of the AfDB. An event during which, by videoconference, Presidents Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria), Paul Kagamé (Rwanda), Alpha Condé (Guinea), George Weah (Liberia), Denis Sassou NGuesso (Congo) and Umaro Sissoco Embaló (Guinea-Bissau) showed their unwavering support for Akinwumi Adesina.
Reelected for a second five-year term at the head of the AfDB Group, the latter received all the votes of representatives of the 81 regional and non-regional member countries of the institution. This virtual vote is a first in the history of the Bank.
Difficulties and prospects!
“President Adesina has led the Bank with integrity and vision for the past five years, with successful personal initiatives in agriculture and education,” said Paul Kagame.
According to whom “the next term will therefore be the continuation of the first”. He assured “Mr. Adesina” of his support during this period of pandemic “marked by difficulties but also by renewed prospects for our continent”. The Bank has played a key role and continues to ensure that Africa’s interests are defended internationally, said the President of Rwanda.
For his part, Alpha Condé hailed Akinwumi Adesina a man committed to the cause of Africa: “I am sure that he will be able to apply even more the five priorities that he has determined, in particular for energy”. The President of Guinea said he was “very happy” to hear Akinwumi Adesina speak of “a development bank for young people”, while “youth are the future of Africa”.
Georges Weah, congratulated Akinwumi Adesina for her “well-deserved re-election”. He “looks forward” to the partnership pursued during his second term.
In his inauguration speech, after taking the oath, President Akinwumi Adesina presented his overall vision and his ambition to consolidate the successes recorded by the institution since 2015, to improve its functioning and to exploit the opportunities created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has changed everything globally, and it has put a serious brake on Africa’s growth. “Now we need to help Africa rise again with strength, but intelligently, paying more attention to the quality of growth, especially in the areas of health, climate change and climate change. ‘environment. “
President Adesina has designated four strategic pillars, “the institution, people, delivery and sustainability” that will support the five core goals, including improving quality and impact, and maintaining financial sustainability.
A more agile and selective bank!
He argued that the new framework will complement and strengthen the bank’s five main priorities, the “High 5” which have guided its mission since 2015, in line with other continental and global development frameworks. “The UNDP has confirmed that the implementation of the top five priorities will achieve 90% of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063,” he said.
“We will build on the notable successes we have achieved in agriculture, expanding access to technology so that tens of millions of African farmers benefit. The continent will have to be helped to create competitive agricultural value chains.
“We will promote what we produce in Africa and provide creative opportunities, relayed by cutting-edge technology, to promote massive youth engagement in agriculture and agribusiness.”
At the institutional level, “the Bank will have to be more agile and more selective”, he continued. It will have to reproduce on a larger scale what is already working and consolidate its own institutional and human capacity. “Our Bank must build on its own long-term financial sustainability to support Africa’s more ambitious, deeper and faster growth in the years to come.”
The Bank reacted quickly to the Covid-19 pandemic and the dual economic and health crisis. However, the crisis has highlighted the need for a more strategic focus on African health systems. “The bank will pay increased attention to health infrastructure in Africa, so that it offers quality services and knows how to take advantage of a comparative advantage in this area,” said President Adesina.
President Adesina intends to pursue the AfDB’s “five priorities”: Light up Africa and supply it with energy; feed Africa; industrialize Africa; integrate Africa; improve the quality of life of populations.
“I want us to be able to collectively build on our achievements for the next five years. My ambition is to consolidate the AfDB Group, to make it stronger and more resilient, to endow it with the capacities and leadership necessary to increase the quality of its actions in favor of the African population, without compromising its solidity and sustainability. financial.”
