Chronicle Editor
Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has endorsed the candidacy of African Development Bank president Dr Akinwumi Adesina for a second term at the helm of the institution.
The decision was announced at the end of the 56th ordinary session of the authority of Heads of State and Government of Ecowas held in Abuja, Nigeria on Saturday.
“In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of office as president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the authority endorses his candidacy for a second term as the president of the bank,” Ecowas said in a communique issued after the meeting.
Dr Adesina is the 8th elected AfDB president.
He was elected to the five-year term on May 28, 2015 by the bank’s board of governors at its annual meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process will play out next year.
Dr Adesina is a renowned development economist and the first Nigerian to serve as AfDB president.
He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally including with the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, a stint that was widely praised for his reforms in the agricultural sector.
Ecowas said the former minister brought the same drive to the bank, making agriculture one of the organisation’s priority areas.
Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony, Dr Adesina was quoted reminding delegates of AfDB’s investments in the region.
“You can always count on the African Development Bank – your bank,” he said.
Ecowas president Mr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou commended AfDB’s involvement in West Africa and said it had provided “invaluable technical and financial interventions in the implementation of numerous projects and programmes.’’
The Ecowas summit included a progress report on the region’s economic performance. It noted the role of the African Development Bank in the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa. -@okazunga
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