Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina has, Thursday, been re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for another five-year term.
The virtual election held on Thursday August 27 at the virtual annual general meeting of the bank.
Adesina was said to have appealed for a second term in office has on Wednesday after a months-long storm over alleged corruption and poor governance that ended after he was cleared in an independent probe.
In a speech at the AfDB’s annual meetings, Adesina formally requested a second term as president, declaring that he was doing it with an acute sense of duty and commitment.
In a statement the AfDB issued, he stated, “I do it to serve Africa and our bank, in an unbiased way, to the best of the abilities that God has given me.”
Adesina, who was the sole candidate according to Lespanafricaines reports, became the first Nigerian to head the bank in 2015.
He gained continent-wide recognition last October when the AfDB secured $115bn in funding pledges, a move that doubled its capital and cemented its triple-A credit rating.
The AfDB had estimated that the continent could lose at least $173.1bn in GDP this year and $236.7bn next year as a result of the economic fallout occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bank has moved swiftly in response, setting up a coronavirus funding mechanism in April of up to $10 billion.
According to the AfDB president, the number of shareholders in the bank upped to 81 with the admission of Ireland.
While 54 shareholders are Africans, others are from America, Asia and Europe respectively.
