Adesina gets ECOWAS endorsement for second term as AfDB President

African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Akinwumi Adesina has received the endorsement of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)  for a second term of five years.

The decision was announced at the end of the fifty-sixth ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, held on Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria.

In a communiqué issued after the meeting, the regional body said, “In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of office as President of the African Development Bank, the Authority endorses his candidacy for a second term as the President of the bank”.

Adesina, the eighth elected President of the African Development Bank Group, was elected to the five-year term on 28 May 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process will play out next year.

Adesina, a renowned development economist, is the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group. He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, like the Rockefeller Foundation; and was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015.

It is on record that that was, for Adesina, a career stint that was widely praised for his reforms in the agricultural sector.

Interestingly, the former minister brought the same drive to the AfDB, making agriculture one of the organization’s priority areas.

Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony, Adesina reminded the group of the African Development Bank’s investments in the region.

In his words, “You can always count on the African Development Bank – your Bank”.

ECOWAS President, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou commended the Bank’s involvement in West Africa and said it had provided “invaluable technical and financial interventions…in the implementation of numerous projects and programmes”.

The ECOWAS summit included a progress report on the region’s economic performance. It noted the role of the African Development Bank in the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.

The Communiqué further states that, “The Authority takes note of the region’s improved economic performance, with ECOWAS real GDP growing by 3.3% in 2019 against 3.0% in 2018, in a context characterised by a decline in inflationary pressures and sound public finances”.

“It urges the Member States to continue economic reforms and ensure a sound macroeconomic environment in Member States, with a view to accelerating the structural transformation of ECOWAS economies and facilitating the achievement of the monetary union by 2020.”