The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has endorsed the candidacy of current African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Akinwumi Adesina, for a second term at the bank.
According to Communication and External Relations Executive at AfDB, Emeka Anuforo, the decision was announced at the end of the 56th ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, held on Saturday in Abuja.
“In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of office as President of the African Development Bank, the Authority endorses his candidacy for a second term as the President of the bank,” ECOWAS shared in a communique issued after the meeting.
Adesina is the 8th elected President of the African Development Bank Group and the first Nigerian to hold the office.
He was elected to the five-year term on 28 May 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 in 2020.
Adesina, a renowned development economist, 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 career stint that was widely praised for his reforms in the agricultural sector.
Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony, Adesina reminded the group of the African Development Bank’s investments in the region.
ECOWAS President, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, commends the bank’s involvement in West Africa, saying it had provided “invaluable technical and financial interventions in the implementation of numerous projects and programmes”.
The ECOWAS summit includes a progress report on the region’s economic performance, which notes the role of the African Development Bank in the continent’s transformation and calls for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.