Former minister of Agriculture during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina has been re-elected as the President of Africa Development Bank, Adesina was re-elected by the Board of Governors of the Bank at the ongoing AfDB’s virtual annual meeting in Abidjan on Thursday.
The 55th Annual Meeting of the AfDB Board of Governors is running simultaneously with the 46th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund (ADF) videoconference, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Personal Assistant on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie confirmed the development while congratulating Adesina on her Twitter page.
She tweeted, “Our very own Akinwumi Akin Adesina has been reaffirmed as the President of the African Development Bank.
“Thank you to our supportive President @MBuhari who mobilized support for our own Adesina and why not! Adesina has been proven to be above boards.”
Akinwumi Adesina, the first Nigerian to hold the post of Bank president was a former Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was elected as the 8th President of the African Development Bank on Thursday, May 28, 2015.
He succeeded Donald Kaberuka of Rwanda, and assumed duty on September 1, 2015 in Abidjan.
Congratulatory messages have greeted the reappointment Akinwumi Adesina as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a second five-year term.
Adesina’s re-election was confirmed on Thursday at the virtual annual general meeting of the bank. The 56-year-old was the sole candidate for the top position of the bank.
Recall that Adesina was recently cleared of corruption and nepotism allegations by an independent probe, following the rejection by some stakeholders of the report of the bank’s ethics committee that earlier cleared him of the same allegations. The allegations were leveled against him by some whistleblowers.
Many Nigerians have taken to the social media to congratulate Adesina over his reappointment.
Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, tweeted: “@akin_adesina, I congratulate you on your reelection as @AfDB_Group President.”
Presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad tweeted: “Nigeria’s Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has been re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB). With this re-election, he will spend another 5 years supervising the affairs of the Bank. Congratulations!”
