Akinwunmi Adesina Elected President of AfDB

Thu, May 28, 2015
By publisher
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BREAKING NEWS, Business

Nigerian Akinwunmi Adesina is now the newly elected president of the African Development Bank, AfDB

/ – May 28, 2015 @ 7.30 GMT /

 

AFTER years of trying to get a Nigerian elected as the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina, minister of agriculture and rural development under the outgoing Preident Goodluck Jonathan administration, has at last clinched the job. He beat seven other contenders for the top job that has eluded the country over the years.

His election took place today in Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire, where the African Development Bank annual general meetings have  been going on.

General Muhammadu Buhari, president-elect, had in April communicated his backing of Adesina’s candidacy to the Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama, who is the current chairperson of the ECOWAS.

Buhari said that his support of Adesina’s candidacy was not just because he is Nigerian but because he has “a proven track record in a career that predates his position as Nigeria’s minister for agriculture and rural development.”

Adesina has years of experience of working in Francophone and Anglophone countries, and a passion to help eradicate poverty in Africa by reducing unemployment and inequality among African youth, Buhari’s statement said, adding, that “Dr. Adesina is also an agricultural development expert with 24 years of experience in developing and managing successful agricultural programmes across Africa.”

Until his appointment as Nigeria’s minister of agriculture and rural development in 2011, he was the vice president, Policy and Partnerships Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA.

He has also held senior leadership positions in a number of agricultural institutions in the world.

sourced from News Express

/ – May 28, 2015 @ 7.30 GMT /

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