– Pledges Capacity Building to Boost AfCFTA
The recently re-elected president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Akinwunmi Adesina, has been sworn into office for a second term.
The event which held at the AfDB headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, was witnessed by top officials of the Bank, including Kenneth Ofori-Attah, Ghana’s finance minister and chair of the AfDB board of governors.
Ofori-Attah administered the oath of office.
Mr Adesina, Nigeria’s minister of agriculture under former President Goodluck Jonathan administration, was re-elected into office for a fresh five-year mandate at the Bank’s annual meeting.
In his appreciation speech, Adesina expressed gratitude to God and the people who supported him during his re-election bid.
He pledged to prioritize industrial and human capacity building during his second term in order to boost the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He said the Bank’s infrastructure work will focus on economic infrastructure, quality physical infrastructure and quality health infrastructure in order to deliver value for the shareholders.
He also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had opened up new opportunities and a greater sense of urgency to build Africa’s industrial development and the human capital necessities.
Part of the speech read: “Now, we must help Africa build back boldly, but smartly, paying greater attention to quality growth: especially in the areas of health, climate and the environment.
“As we look to the future, working with the Board of Directors, the Bank will pay increased attention to supporting Africa with quality health care infrastructure, and building on its comparative advantage in infrastructure.
“The Bank’s infrastructure work will focus on economic infrastructure, quality physical infrastructure and quality health infrastructure.
“COVID-19 opens up new opportunities and a greater sense of urgency to build up Africa’s manufacturing capacity, industrial development, and critically needed industrial value chains, that must be supported by enabling infrastructure and policies.
“Special attention will be given to regional industrial value chains and the strengthening of financial markets in order to expand intra-regional trade and competitiveness, and boost the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.”
Recounting the key achievements of his first term, Adesina said he Bank, among other positive milestones, maintained its AAA rating by all the three major rating agencies that assessed the institution,
“We’ve delivering value for money for our shareholders. The Bank has the lowest cost among all multilateral development banks, adding “The African Development Fund has also been rated as the 2nd best managed concessional financing institution globally.
“Over the past five years we have maintained our AAA rating by all three major rating agencies — thanks to your continued extraordinary support as shareholders.
“The Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network, otherwise known as MOPAN, ranked the African Development Bank as number one along with the World Bank.”
He said the Bank’s philosophy of ‘Publish What You Fund’ ranked the it as the fourth most transparent globally.
Adesina pointed out that,“In terms of organizations that people wish to work for in Africa, the Bank’s position as an employer of choice increased from number 82 out of 100 top companies in 2015, to number 4 in 2018 and number 3 in 2019.”
He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians and Africans who stood by him during his travail amid controversies that riddled and almost scuttled his re-election.