Dr. Adesina seek another 5 years as the President of African Dev. Bank

       

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina on Wednesday  asked the Board of Governors of the bank to renew their trust in him for another 5 years. Mr Adesina 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,60, 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.”

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.

“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."

Dr. Adesina from Nigeria is the sole candidate running in the election which will take place electronically on Thursday.

Dr. Adesina was a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria. He graduated with a Bachelors in Agricultural Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Ife, Nigeria (1981), where he was the first student to be awarded this distinction by the university. He pursued his studies at Purdue University in Indiana, He obtained his PhD (Agricultural Economics) in 1988 from Purdue where he won the Outstanding PhD Thesis for his research work.