The African Development Bank (AfDB) recently had a change of leadership as Dr Sidi Oud Tah from Mauritania took over the helm of affairs as the ninth President from the outgone Nigeria’s Dr Adewunmi Adesina. Adesina had been on the saddle between 2015 and 2025, being two terms of five years each.
Established in 1964, the AfDB has been serving the continent as a home-grown development finance agency with membership of its board comprising both African countries and relevant global multilateral finance agencies. The operational strides of the bank in recent times ranked it as the world’s best multilateral development agency.
As he stepped down from office, Adesina left with a commendable legacy of far-reaching reforms that will remain relevant to the operations of the institution as it contends with the development challenges of the continent. By his enterprise as the head of the AfDB, Adesina has shown that Africans have the innate capacity to reverse the depressed circumstances of underdevelopment on the continent if the right leadership choices are in place.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
Among the highlights of his tenure are developments as the over 250% increase in the bank’s capital from $93 billion to $318 billion between 2019 and 2025. This development largely lifted the status of the institution as a leading multilateral development financier for African infrastructure and other areas of need. Also on the list of the bank’s achievements under Adesina was the ‘High 5s’ strategy which prioritised development areas as energy, agriculture, industrialisation, regional integration, and improved quality of life, and which positively impacted the lives of over 565 million Africans. Yet another area was the establishment of innovative youth entrepreneurship banks, leading to maintaining the AAA credit ratings for the AfDB. Not the least were the establishment under him of the Africa Investment Forum.
Also under his leadership, the AfDB was involved in allocating the sum of $55 billion to projects and establishing the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), by which the bank emerged the continent’s largest multilateral financier of infrastructure. With respect to food security, which is undoubtedly Africa’s most acute challenge, Dr. Adesina convened the ‘Feed Africa Summit’ in 2023, and mobilised $72 billion in funding for food security, which represented the largest global effort for the continent’s food security.
Just as well, on Africa’s bludgeoning youth challenge, AfDB under Adesina initiated the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks to provide financial backing and incubation services for young entrepreneurs, with the target of addressing the critical lack of financial inclusion for Africa’s youth across the continent.
Hence, against the outlined string of achievements by the bank under Adesina, his successor Sidi Ould Tah has his job cut out for him. This includes the sustenance of his predecessor’s initiatives as well as launching his own agenda in the course of lifting the institution to new heights.
Daily Trust is encouraged that the new president Sidi Ould Tah, a Mauritanian economist and former President of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, is coming in with a rich pedigree of exposure to development challenges associated with the continent. He is coming with the promise of launching further reforms, developing new partnerships, and driving a focus on jobs, even as the bank confronts tight budgets and a looming African Development Fund replenishment.
In his inaugural speech in Abidjan the headquarters of the AfDB, he had said “The African Development Bank Group cannot aim to be everything to everyone. It has to focus on where it can move the needle most, always with the spirit of partnership,” This statement suggests a more conservative approach of the institution’s leadership in the days and years ahead. However, in whatever form it takes, the underlying factor remains that the bank offers increasing scope of reliefs to Africa, as the continent grapples with ever changing development challenges.
The complement of challenges for the new leadership, comprise the traditional and emerging development issues across the continent, the contemporary geopolitical tendencies which the continent needs to reconcile with, as well as the need to further expand its operational capacity.
In this context, a leading concern for Africa is to deepen its industrial capacity towards self-sufficiency in most of its currently imported goods and services. With its vast resource base which drives global industrialisation, Africa has no excuse for the current debilitating state of poverty ravaging the continent.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
It is for good measure that the new helmsman is concerned about job creation. We at Daily Trust believe that this is one area that will determine the future of Africa given the ever-growing youth population. The AfDB therefore must harness the humongous potential in Africa’s youthful population to drive the expected dispensation of self-sufficiency across the continent.
Again, the fight against poverty should remain the cornerstone of the institution’s agenda at all times as that is common plague of African society. It is also beneficial for the AfDB to cast a watchful eye on the BRICS nations as they remain partners with Africa.
All said, the fact remains that whatever agenda set by the new AfDB helmsman he needs to reconcile with the laudable legacies of Adesina and aligned with the contemporary realities of the global stage.