African Development Bank (AfDB) has, in less than five years, witnessed rapid capital growth and support for African economies. Its President, Akinwumi Adesina, has led the bank to impressive giant strides. Armed with a vision for better quality of life for Africans, he launched five priorities for Africa’s accelerated development. Under his leadership, ‘Publish What You Fund’, the global campaign for aid and development transparency, ranked the bank fourth out of 47 global development institutions on its Aid Transparency Index, putting it at same standing with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme, writes COLLINS NWEZE.
Africa Development Bank (AfDB) is at the heart of the continent’s development. To make the African transformation agenda a reality, the bank’s President, Akinwumi Adesina, inaugurated High 5s priorities — Light Up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Integrate Africa; Industrialise Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life of the People of Africa.
The bank also achieved a historic 125 per cent increase in its capital, by $115 billion, from $93 billion to $208 billion.
In less than five years of Adesina’s leadership, 101 million people benefitted from access to better transport through “integrate Africa”, 60 million benefitted from improved access to water and sanitation under “Improved quality of life for the people of Africa’’.
As Africa faced the coronavirus pandemic, Adesina led the bank to respond boldly. The bank announced a $10 billion fund in support of African countries.
The bank also launched a $3 billion “Fight COVID-19” social bond on the global capital markets, which has been acclaimed as the largest US dollar-denominated social bond ever in world history.
The bond is now listed on the London Stock Exchange, now oversubscribed at $4.6 billion.
An independent analysis by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has shown that achieving these High 5s will allow Africa to achieve 90 per cent of the Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.
In less than five years of his first term mandate, 18 million people were provided with access to electricity, through “Light Up and Power Africa”, 141 million people gained access to improved agricultural technologies for food security, through “Feed Africa” while 13 million benefited from access to finance from private sector investment projects, through “Industrialise Africa.”
These policies and growth have received massive support across Africa and globally, leading to recognitions and improved ratings for the bank, but not without criticisms.
Adesina, who is seeking a fresh term of five years, has been facing ethical charges from a whistleblower.
AfDB Chairman and Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Niale Kaba, however, said the fraud allegations had been investigated by the Ethics Committee of the continental financial institution, which gave the Nigerian a clean bill of health.
“We congratulate the African Development Bank’s Sovereign Portfolio on achieving fourth place in the 2020 Aid Transparency Index.
As large quantities of aid are being reallocated to deal with the COVID-19 emergency, the transparency of international aid is more important than ever,” said Gary Forster, CEO of Publish What You Fund, which has produced the index each year since 2011.
Publish What You Fund ranked the bank ‘very good’ — The highest of the five categories used to assess organisations’ transparency.
The ranking is based on several criteria, including finance and budgets, basic information data, organisational planning and performance.
In the new Index, which covers the 2019 year, the African Development Bank scored 95.5 out of 100 on transparency — A significant improvement on its score for 2018.
Ratings agency S&P Global has affirmed its ‘AAA/A-1+’ long- and short-term issuer credit assessment of the African Development Bank (AfDB) with a stable outlook.
The institution’s commitment to total transparency is illustrated by MapAfrica, a web-based platform that maps all of the bank’s investments across the African continent.
“I am absolutely delighted with this achievement!” said Swazi Tshabalala, Acting Senior Vice President for the African Development Bank Group.
“It crowns this institution’s commitment to transparency at a time when it has never been so important. With such large volumes of funding being assigned to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, it is crucial for our citizens to know how much, where and when the African Development Bank is investing in Africa’s development.”
Adesina is US trained, with a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, where he received the Outstanding PhD Thesis award. He has put the bank on a global pedestal as a globally respected institution.
Under his leadership, the AfDB has been aggressively accelerating the development of the continent. The bank, under his leadership, has become much closer to countries on the ground.
The Executive Committee of the Africa Union, consisting of 55 African countries, endorsed Adesina as the sole candidate for re-election. Also, 15 Heads of State of the Ecowas region endorsed his re-election.
The support base of Adesina has continued to rise. Former United States Director to the bank, Mima Nedelcovych said Adesina, in his vision and execution of the “High 5s” for Africa, has contributed alot to the development of the continent.
He and the AfDB has stepped up when most needed an African institution to lead the way in the responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, former president Olusegun Obasanjo and the large number of former African presidents that came out in support of Adesina has every reason and right to come forward and publicly support their champion.
He said Adesina has established the framework for furthering the critically important role that the AfDB is playing in the development and inclusive growth of the continent, adding that the bank chief came in with a very big vision and mission embodied in the High 5s that he very much supported from day one.
“This was and is the necessary vision to bring the African continent into the mainstream of the world economy. The basic tenets of the high 5s that I certainly experience every day as a business person in Africa, those being that farming is a business and a growth sector, that without power you cannot industrialise, that without industry you cannot create inclusive growth and wealth, that without integration you cannot scale and be competitive, and that without those for you cannot achieve the fifth of improving the quality of life of Africa’s people are at the core of that mission,” he said.
He added that big visions take time to implement and are often not easy to execute. “They required structural changes in the body of the bank, which included both the reorganisation and the strengthening of the professional cadre and morale in the bank.
As an outside observer, champion and client of the bank, I see these changes taking root and the results beginning to give fruit.
What I would like to see in his second term is to give him and the AfDB the time to ripen those fruits to full fruition and in consonance with the fruition I see of the African continent as a whole in today’s world economy,” Nedelcovych said.
