Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina has been re-elected President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a second term of five years.
Adesina was the only candidate up for ‘election’ during the voting which took place electronically on Thursday at the virtual annual general meeting of the bank.
His re-election was disclosed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, via his personal Twitter handle.
He said, “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!”
The last few months leading up to the election had been tense for Dr. Adesina who faced investigations for alleged corruption.
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He was eventually cleared by an independent panel.
Adesina, first assumed headship of the bank in 2015.
He gained recognition last October when the AfDB secured $115 billion (105 billion euros) in funding pledges, a move that doubled its capital and cemented its triple-A credit rating.
In a speech at the AfDB’s annual meetings, Adesina formally requested a second term as president, declaring that he was “doing it with an acute sense of duty and commitment.”
“I do it to serve Africa and our bank, in an unbiased way, to the best of the abilities that God has given me,” he said, according to a statement issued by the bank.
