Sierra Leone will look to the African Development Bank to stimulate agribusiness development in the country with a focus on rice production, its president Maada Bio told a visiting delegation led by its president Akinwumi Adesina. Adesina began a two-day visit to Sierra Leone on Wednesday, during which he will hold meetings to discuss curbing malnutrition, creating skills and jobs for young people, rapidly scaling up economic diversification and restoring the country to self-sufficiency in rice production. “Our government is working hard to recover the economy, which was on the brink of collapse. We want to focus on economic diversification,…
Author: Alkassoum Diallo
Over 200 leading African political, business, and diplomatic leaders gathered in Johannesburg for the 8th African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Award dinner. They witnessed Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, being honored as the African of the Year 2019. Themed ‘Africa for Africans – Exploring the Gains of a Connected Continent’, the evening brought together dignitaries including South African Deputy President, David D Mabuza, South African Ministers Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Zulu, and Dr. Ken Giami, Publisher of African Leadership Magazine. The highlight of the event was the keynote speech delivered by Dr. Adesina. His passion…
“Twenty-three years is not a trivial number of years to spend in an institution. You’ve been a pillar of this institution. You’ve done very well.” It is with those words that the Executive Director for Nigeria and São Tomé and Príncipe, Bright Okogu, also Dean of the Board of directors of the African Development Bank, commended the outgoing Senior Vice President, Charles Boamah. “You are going to leave large pair of shoes to be filled… On behalf of the Bank, I wish to say that we are content with your work, we are content with your commitment to the African Development Bank,…
The Executive Council of the African Union has supported Dr. Akinwumi Adesina’s candidacy for a second term as President of the African Development Bank. The decision was taken during the thirty-sixth Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council, held during the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 6-7 February 2020. Adesina was elected to his first term as President by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan on 28 May 2015. He is the eighth President of the African Development Bank Group and the first Nigerian in the post. During his first term, the Bank’s shareholders approved a landmark…
The African Development Bank, in collaboration with the government of Nigeria, has held a meeting with stakeholders to discuss details around Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones in Nigeria. A workshop was held in Abuja from 17 to 18 February to address the categorization and location of the SAPZs, which are meant to kickstart the agriculture sector. Speaking at the event, Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, lauded the efforts of the African Development Bank and called for all hands to be on deck in the sustainable implementation of the initiative. “I am proud that the SAPZ project…
The president of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina is expected in the Ethiopian capital for the African Union’s 33rd Assembly of Heads of State and Government. The summit runs from 8-10 February 2020 under the theme: Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development. Adesina will arrive in Addis Ababa with a full slate of talks and meetings ahead of him. These include the African Peer Review Mechanism’s annual forum; an African Leadership for Nutrition high-level dinner; and bilateral meetings with, among others, the president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, and the CEO of the African Union’s Development…
The African Development Fund has approved a $34.74 million grant and loan to boost renewable energy access and promote an attractive investment climate in Liberia. At a signing ceremony on 29 January in Monrovia, Dr. Orison Amu, the African Development Bank’s Country Manager in Liberia, and Samuel Tweah Jr., Liberia’s Minister of Finance & Development Planning, inked financing agreements for two projects. The ceremony was attended by officials from the government, the Rural Renewable Energy Agency (RREA), the National Investment Commission (NIC), development partners and other stakeholders. Under the first project, the Renewable Energy for Electrification in Liberia, more than $33…
“Youth must be prepared for the jobs of the future – not the jobs of the past,” African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said on Thursday at the launch of the Bank’s flagship African Economic Outlook. “Given the fast pace of change, driven by the 4th industrial revolution – from artificial intelligence to robotics, machine learning, quantum computing – Africa must invest more in re-directing and re-skilling its labor force, and especially the youth, to effectively participate,” the Bank president said. The African Economic Outlook is an annual report that provides updates and forecasts of the continent’s economic performance. The theme of the 2020 report…
Africa’s economies are growing strongly, but growth alone cannot meet the needs of the continent’s poorest citizens, because “nobody eats GDP,” the African Development Bank’s President, Akinwumi Adesina, said as he unveiled the Bank’s flagship economic report on Thursday. The 2020 African Economic Outlook (AEO) showed that the continent’s economies are growing well, higher than the global average. The report projected a steady rise in growth in Africa from 3.4% in 2019 to 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021. According to the report, these figures do not tell the whole story. Across the continent, the poor are not seeing enough of the benefits of…
At a meeting with the African Development Bank President in Abuja, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari commended the Bank for its successes and pledged Nigeria’s continuous support for the institution. “I want to recognize the support that the African Development Bank has given Nigeria in recent times. I remember the Bank’s critical gesture in 2016 during the difficult period of economic recession through a US$600 million budget support facility. We appreciate this and assure you that we will continue to work towards a diversified Nigeria,” President Buhari, said at the meeting with Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, which was attended by some…
