Dr Sidi Ould Tah sworn in as President of African Development Bank.

The Mauritanian took over from Dr Akinwunmi Ayodeji Adesina, of Nigerian origin who has served the bank for two terms, having taken over the baton of command in September, 2015.

Dr Akinwunmi was the 8th elected President of the African Development Bank Group.

Who also served as chair of the board of both the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund. Dr Adesina also served as Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2010 to 2015.

Member governments are officially represented at the AfDB by their Ministers of Finance, Planning or Cooperation who sit on the AfDB Board of Governors. 

The AfDB Governors meet once a year to take major decisions about the institution's leadership, strategic directions and governing bodies. 

The Governors typically appoint a representative from their country to serve in the offices of the AfDB's Board of Executive Directors.

Day-to-day decisions about which loans and grants should be approved and what policies should guide the AfDB's work are taken by the Board of Executive Directors. 

Each member country is represented on the Board, but their voting power and influence differ depending on the amount of money they contribute to the AfDB.

In June 2020, the board of the AfDB agreed to a review of Adesina's management of the bank.  Adesina was reelected unanimously for a second five-year term on 27 August 2020.

New financial management philosophy

Dr Sidi Tah, who is coming in as the ninth president of the African Development Bank Group was voted on 29 May, winning 76.18% of the vote in the third round of the election by the bank’s governors. 

He is coming in bearing a new philosophy in the way the finances of the bank are managed, insisting that for every dollar he will spend anywhere in the continent, that dollar must be able to generate ten more dollars in return.

The Mauritanian economist has been long in pursuing his career in the banking sector, and previously served as the president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, BADEA.

The BADEA is another multilateral lender institution which, stakeholders reveal that the capital base increased from a modest 4.2 billion United States Dollars, USD from when Dr Tah took over, to 20 billion USD by the end of the tenure of Dr Tah.

“Once a little-known player in the development finance world, BADEA is now seen as a vital partner on the continent, holding an AA+ credit rating from S&P – one of the highest available”, a top BADEA official acknowledged. 

He added that it is largely thanks to this track record that AfDB shareholders decided to entrust Dr Tah with Africa’s leading development finance institution.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3552 of Tuesday September 02, 2025