The 60th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank and the 51st Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Fund took place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from May 26 – 30.
A major outcome of the meetings is the election of the 9th President of the AfDB Group, Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania by the Bank’s Board of Governors.
Tah brings over 35 years’ experience in African and international finance, having also served as president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) for 10 years from 2015 and is a former Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance of Mauritania.
He told the Group’s Governors and the media after his election: “Now, let us go to work, I’m ready!
Tah has to be ready because there is a lot of work to be done by the top African development organisation, as he assumes office on 1st September 2025, for a five-year tenure, following the end of the second term of current President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina of Nigeria who has been at the helm of affairs since 2015.
Adesina’s performance as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is marked by significant growth in the Bank’s capital and a strong emphasis on transparency. Under his leadership, the Bank’s capital increased from $93 billion to $318 billion, and the AfDB was recognized as the world’s premier multilateral financial institution.
Particularly, industry watchers believe that during his watch, AfDB achieved much in areas of Financial Growth and Transparency where the Bank’s capital rose from $93 billion to $318 billion and it was recognised as the most transparent financial institution globally for two consecutive years. The Bank also scored high in its five priority sectors of transformative growth, including Light-up and Power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa.
The AfDB’s Africa Investment Forum helped mobilise $180 billion in investment interest to Africa.
Tah’s preparedness to fill the large shoes to be left by Dr. Adesina will be tested at the onset with the current calls by African leaders for homegrown solutions to meet economic challenges, and the launch of the African Economic Outlook report. His election also comes at a crucial time in the Bank Group’s six decades of existence, with Africa remaining resilient despite climate shocks, economic disruption, and a shifting geopolitical landscape, but with the need for the Bank to move faster or risk falling behind on delivering on the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals, summed up in the Bank Group’s High 5’s.
There is no doubt that the recent AfDB Meeting offered an opportunity for members to reflect on progress, identify opportunities to make Africa’s vast capital the main driver of structural transformation and chart the way forward towards more inclusive, greener and more resilient economies in coming decades.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has given out a significant amount to countries, with the current 16th replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), which ends in 2025, being $8.9 billion. This is the largest replenishment in the ADF’s history. The ADF provides soft loans and grants to low-income countries. Within this replenishment, $429 million was specifically allocated for climate change initiatives.
Nigeria has been a beneficiary of funds from the AfDB for several years, with the recent one being a $134 million AfDB loan facility to boost seed and grain production for farmers. The loan is expected to assist the Federal Government to subsidise agricultural inputs by 50% as dry season farming commences.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, who spoke during the unveiling of the 2024/2025 National Dry Season Farming in Calabar, explained that the reintroduction of national dry season farming aims to boost year-round agricultural production, and the loan facility would play a vital role in achieving this goal while also ensuring national food security.
Recall too that AfDB also approved a $500 million loan to finance the first phase of Nigeria’s Economic Governance and Energy Transition Support Programme. The programme is aimed at accelerating transformation of the country’s electricity infrastructure and improving access to cleaner sources of energy. The Bank had said when it announced the loan that the facility will help close the federal budget financing gap in the 2024/25 fiscal year, specifically supporting the implementation of the country’s new Electricity Act and energy transition plan. The Nigerian government launched the energy transition plan in August 2022 and passed a new Electricity Act in June 2023, decentralising the electricity supply industry.
There is huge expectation that the loan will transform Nigeria’s electricity infrastructure and improve access to cleaner energy sources, while removing the main barriers hindering electricity infrastructure development and Nigeria’s expansion of renewable energy.
With AfDB’s support, it is hoped that the Nigerian government will utilise the funds properly in areas that they have been targeted to, so that the economic growth of the country should receive the boost which prompted the AfDB to approve the huge amounts in the first place.
