Against all odds, Akinwumi Adesina was on Thursday re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank president (AfDB) for another term of five years.
Adesina re-election was affirmed on the second day of the 55th Annual Meetings and the 46th meetings of the Board of Governors of the African Development Fund.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Adesina on Wednesday made a case for his re-election as head of the institution, saying that he wanted to fulfil “his sense of duty and commitment”.
Adesina recalled that his current five-year term as head of the African Development Bank Group was marked by the implementation of five strategic priorities for the continent’s development, known as the “High 5s”.
“Five years ago, right here in Abidjan, you elected me president of the African Development Bank. It was a huge responsibility to shoulder. I promised that I would work tirelessly to accelerate Africa’s development. My vision, focused on the High 5 priorities, was my commitment, my promise, my compass,” Adesina said during a virtual session at the start of the Bank’s 2020 Annual Meetings.
“Time has passed so quickly,” he noted, citing the Bank’s achievements in the five years of his presidency: 18 million additional people now have access to electricity, 141 million people have received more advanced agricultural technology to improve food security, 15 million people have access to financing, 101 million now have access to improved transport, and 60 million people have gained access to water and sanitation.
“With these positive results, President Adesina asked the Board of Governors to renew their trust in him for the next five years. “Dear Governors, these Annual Meetings are my opportunity to offer you my services and seek a second term as President of the African Development Bank. I do so with humility. I do so with an acute sense of duty and commitment. I do so to serve Africa and our Bank,” he stated.
Côte d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, who witnessed Adesina’s election in 2015, welcomed the fact that his country was once again presiding over the electoral process. He called on the Bank’s Governors, headed by Ivorian Minister of Planning for Planning and Development Kaba Nialé, to respect the articles governing the institution, before addressing a message to the candidate.
Ouattara wished Adesina well and said he hoped that his re-election bid was successful. Adesina was the sole candidate in the running.
TNG reports Adesina is the 8th elected President of the AfDB Group. He was first elected to the position on May 28, 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
He took office at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan on September 1, 2015 and served an initial five-year term.
He is a distinguished development economist and agricultural development expert with over 25 years of international experience. He is the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group.
Adesina served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, during which time he implemented bold policy reforms in the fertilizer sector and pursued innovative agricultural investment programs to expand opportunities for the private sector.
He was previously Vice-President (Policy and Partnerships) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He was also Associate Director (Food Security) at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, where he worked for a decade (1998-2008) in senior leadership positions, including as Regional Office Director and Representative for Southern Africa.
Adesina was Principal Economist and Social Science Research Coordinator for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Principal Economist and Coordinator of the West Africa Rice Economics Task Force at the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) and an Assistant Principal Economist at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). From 2008 to 2010, Adesina was the President of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.
Adesina has received a number of global awards for his leadership and work in agriculture. In 2010, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed him as one of 17 global leaders to spearhead the Millennium Development Goals, along with Bill Gates, the Spanish Prime Minister and the President of Rwanda. He was named Person of the Year by Forbes Africa magazine in 2013.
Adesina earned a first-class honours Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife, Nigeria in 1981. In 1988 he completed a PhD in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in the United States, where he won the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award for his research work. He also won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1988, which launched his international career in global agricultural development.
Born on February 6, 1960, Adesina speaks fluent French and English.