Challenging landscape awaits new AfDB leadership

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION

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THE search for the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s 10th president is on.

The AfDB will hold elections for a new president on May 29 during its Annual Board of Governors Meeting. The current president, Akinwumi Adesina’s second and final term as president of the Bank will lapse in August. Four candidates are in the race to replace him.

These include Amadou Hott from Senegal, Samuel Maimbo from Zambia, South Africa’s Swazi Tshabalala, and Sidi Ould Tah from Mauritania.

The winning candidate will have to secure a double majority of the votes from the bank’s 54 regional (African) members on the one hand, and the collective of regional and non-regional members will secure another majority from the regional and the 27 non-regional members combined.

Among the bank’s non-regional members are the US, China, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia. The winning candidate will have to secure the support of some of the bank’s largest shareholders in the regional list, namely Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and the Ivory Coast, who by their significant shareholdings enjoy more voting powers.

The US, Japan, Germany and Canada are among the largest shareholders in the non-regional list, which gives them a decisive influence on the outcome of the elections.

Since its establishment in 1964, the AfDB has emerged as one of the premier African development finance institutions at the forefront of addressing the continent’s development challenges by promoting economic growth and eradicating poverty.