Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina has been re-elected to serve a second five-year term as President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Thursday, August 27, 2020, by the Board of Governors of the bank. According to the official statement by the AfDB, the globally-renowned development economist and World Food Prize laureate and Sunhak Peace Prize laureate, received a 100% of votes of all regional and non-regional members of the bank. The election took place on the final day of the 2020 Annual Meetings of the AfDB Group, which was held virtually for the first time in the bank’s history. Bismarck Rewane, a leading economist and CEO of Financial Derivatives, said, “The re-election of Dr. Akin Adesina is an epoch-making event for the African continent. It goes a long way towards erasing the stereotypical image of Africans in general and Nigeria in particular as lacking in the discipline of transparency, accountability and governance. For the institution, the African Development Bank, it provides a major opportunity for it to play a more catalytic role in the development of a continent in dire need of liberation from the pangs of multidimensional poverty, a debt trap and anaemic economic growth.
SOURCE: BUSINESS DAY LIVE