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The lender has supported more than 6,575 projects across Africa and invested US$77bn in numerous projects in the past 10 years
ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | On Sept.10, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the continental premier finance institution, celebrated its 60th anniversary with its current President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina (PhD), describing the commemoration as “a day of joy.”
In September 1964, representatives of 25 African countries gathered in Khartoum, Sudan, to agree on the vision for a bank to drive economic development across Africa. Currently, the institution comprises three distinct entities; the AfDB, the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). The institution has a presence in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan.
Over the last six decades, the AfDB has financed several crucial infrastructure projects across the continent and helped improve the lives of millions of Africans. President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire headlined the celebrations referring to the day as “an historic milestone and a cause for celebration.”
“The Bank is a source of pride and hope for Africa,” President Ouattara said. However, he was quick to add that there is still more work to be done.
“Our Bank is a steadfast support in times of crisis. Africa still has floods and wars and hunger is rife. Therefore, the Bank must do even more and encourage states to invest more across climate, agriculture, wars and endeavour to pursue peace and democracy to bring these wars to an end,” he said.
President Ouattara spoke on the second and official day of the Bank’s Diamond Jubilee festivities which took place in the country’s economic capital, Abidjan, a home to the institution’s headquarters.
Recalling AfDB’s humble beginnings
Attending the Diamond Jubilee celebrations was Georges Rigobert Aithnard, the Bank’s oldest retiree. He described the Bank’s 60-year journey as “a journey of resilience and passion, including a fair share of bumps and bruises.”
Aithnard recounted the challenges faced by the then fledgling institution. Speaking on Sept.9 as part of a staff panel discussion during the celebration, the 89-year-old offered unique insights into the Bank’s formative years.
From his role in 1965 as Personal Assistant to the first President of the Bank, to his retirement as Director of the African Development Institute of the Bank in 1995, Aithnard showed deep enthusiasm for his work and a strong belief in the future of the Bank.
He recalled a time when the Bank president struggled to secure a meeting with the vice president of a sister multilateral development bank. That has since changed, he told the audience of past and present Bank staff, partners, and senior government officials. He said the African Development Bank has emerged as a leader among its peers and a powerful voice within the multilateral development community.
“When I joined the African Development Bank in 1965, the Bank was much more modest than it is today. There has been robust progress over the years,” Aithnard said. “Despite the fears and challenges the Bank faced then, it confronted problems head-on, secured global ratings, and continued to increase its capital. Today, we are delighted that the Bank has overcome its fears to become a global development institution with influence beyond Africa.”
Africa’s partner of choice
He encouraged the Bank’s staff and management to continue to work hard, make sacrifices, and believe that the institution can make a greater difference in African countries. “Once knocking on others’ doors, the Bank now finds others knocking on its own. The success of the Bank should be an incentive to the staff,” he added.
Nnenna Nwabufo, the Bank’s Director General at the East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office, described the institution as Africa’s partner of choice.
“The Bank is at the centre of the conversation on Africa’s development. It has become Africa’s partner of choice. When African countries want to discuss development, they come to the African Development Bank because it has become a trusted partner,” she said.
She shared the example of the Bank’s work in fragile states, where it continues to have an impact despite obvious challenges. “In our work with fragile states, we don’t see the challenges, we see opportunities.”
Nwabufo joined the Bank’s Treasury Department in 1991 and has held increasingly senior positions, rising to become a director general in January 2021.
Jerome Berndt joined the African Development Bank as a Young Professional in 2016. He has since progressed to become a Principal Fragility and Resilience Officer in the Transition States Coordination Office.
“The learning and friendships I experienced at the Bank over the years have been the greatest inspiration of my career,” Berndt said.
He praised the strong work and contributions of the Bank’s staff and acknowledged the crucial support of partners. “Some of the Bank’s unsung heroes are the young professionals,” he noted.
Joséphine Sallah Ayari, speaking on behalf of the General Services Staff, and Hannatou Mamane, representing the Short-term Staff, also reflected on their work at the Bank, highlighting the changes initiated by the Bank’s President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, to support staff progress. Ayari highlighted how the Bank has overcome many challenges to become a resilient institution where staff are proud to work.
Indeed, some beneficiaries of the African Development Bank’s affirmative programmes urged the Bank to expand its support for female entrepreneurs, as well as young innovators and business creators, if its plan to reduce poverty and tackle the lack of jobs across Africa is to be realized.
AfDB driving entrepreneurship
Speaking at a panel of African youth business representatives on the theme: “Our world, our experience,” Christelle Essim Egue, Lamin Barro and Stéphane Aka-Anghui, who all operate in the Ivorian private sector, shared their experiences of working with the Bank and their vision for the institution over the next decade.
“Previously, I produced 500 packets of doughnuts a day; today, I produce 60 packets per minute,” said a visibly proud Christelle Essim Egue, an Ivorian entrepreneur and founder of Pam Holding, a firm specializing in the production of doughnuts and natural pepper. “With the Bank’s support, we were able to create other products.”
Thanks to the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, which supports women entrepreneurs continent-wide, Christelle received 40 million CFA francs in financing from AFAWA via the pan-African bank ECOBANK.
Currently, her company is flourishing, and she is preparing to open a new factory and diversify her business by investing in palm oil production. For her palm oil plant, she will need to raise 500 million CFA francs and may turn to the Bank for support.
Similarly, Lamin Barro, an innovator and developer of IT solutions, and the CEO of Etudesk, a start-up specializing in online training, has previously partnered with the African Development Bank. The Bank called on his company’s services to support 200 young innovators in Egypt. In Côte d’Ivoire, his start-up helps more than 800 people – in public institutions, local and pan-African companies, and subsidiaries of multinational corporations – in the sphere of technological innovation.
Praising the Bank’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab initiative, the young up-and-coming entrepreneur stressed that the Bank must help young Africans “to create and innovate.” He added: “One of my dreams is to see an incubator or innovation centre in every university in Côte d’Ivoire, and even in Africa. We can promote ‘education entrepreneurship’ i.e. setting up one’s own business while still at university.”
Barro went on to emphasise that Africa must stand up and be counted when it comes to technological developments such as artificial intelligence and block chains among others. Barro said the Bank must increase its presence on social media to encounter young people with whom it can “co-develop projects.”
Pointing out that Côte d’Ivoire’s private sector generates 500,000 jobs a year, Stéphane Aka-Anghui, the Executive Director of the General Confederation of Businesses in Côte d’Ivoire (CGECI), called for a special partnership with the Bank hinged on a shared objective: to industrialise Africa, create jobs and promote start-ups and innovation among young people.
“The Ivorian government wants to create eight million jobs by 2030,” he said. “This can only happen if we create a large number of businesses. If we start one million businesses, they can generate 10 million jobs.”
The CGECI, which has more than 4,000 companies in Côte d’Ivoire under its umbrella, provides more than 80 percent of the country’s tax revenue. It has already benefited from support from the Bank to help businesses structure themselves better and take advantage of the common market of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The CGECI hopes to develop other initiatives with the Bank’s assistance, such as the national champions programme and the CGECI Academy, an initiative that provides support to start-ups.
AfDB’s achievements
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the current head of the AfDB paid tribute to the Bank’s achievements since its inception in Abidjan in 1964. He noted how, over the years, the Bank has supported over 6,575 projects across the continent and how in the past 10 years alone it has invested US$77bn across 3,000 projects to become Africa’s most trusted development partner.
Adesina thanked President Ouattara for hosting the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan and for his strong support to the institution. He described how in 2019 President Ouattara helped the Bank secure a general capital increase of US$115bn – the largest increase in the Bank’s history. The Bank’s total capital rose to US$318bn earlier this May, in another show of shareholder support.
“This provides the firepower to do more for Africa”, said Adesina: “We are today a bigger, bolder and better bank better positioned to meet Africa’s future needs and challenges, to fast-track Africa’s development.”
“Following my election as President in 2015, during my first term, I made a case for a stronger bank with financial resources to help implement and scale up our High 5s: To light up and power Africa; To feed Africa; To industrialize Africa; To integrate Africa; To improve the quality of life of the people of Africa,” Adesina said.
“In the past nine years, we have provided over US$55bn in support of infrastructure, from energy to roads, corridors, seaports, airports, rail, digital infrastructure, water and sanitation.” Adesina noted that, currently, AfDB is the largest multilateral financier of infrastructure in Africa.
He said, in the last eight years, the Bank’s work has impacted the lives of over 400 million people across Africa. He said, for instance that 52% of Africans now have access to electricity compared to 25% in 2016. Should the US$20bn desert-to-power project in the Sahel come on line, close to 10,000MW is expected to be delivered to another 250 million people across the 11 countries.
Adesina also celebrated the Bank’s mobilization of US$72bn to help unlock Africa’s agricultural potential at the Feed Africa Summit in Dakar, Senegal, and its work to support Africa’s efforts to cope with climate change, mobilizing US$25bn through its Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme and US$14bn through its Climate Action window.
“This celebration is a call to action to build the Africa we want to see. May the African Development Bank keep scoring development goals for Africa,” said Adesina.
