We are officially in the Women’s Month! And it’s a few days to Guardian Woman Festival holding at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Osland, in Lagos. We have the first male guest who is a defender of women’s right, the president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina. He previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. He also served as Vice President of Policy and partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

For the AfDB what does inspiring inclusion mean?
I’M a very gender sensitive person and I consider myself a defender of women rights and I’ve been doing that since very early in my career. That’s because I believe that no bird can fly with one wing, every bird flies with two wings. You cannot develop any economy unless you give the same rights to the women as you give to your men. Your gender shouldn’t have anything to do with how smart you are, how capable you are and what you can do, so categorisation is not something that I take likely. I really believe in girls’ education because we have a problem in terms of high birth rates, because girls are not in school and I also think that women are the ones that are best in bringing up kids; they set values but they must be able to have economic freedom, enough resources to be able to take care of their households. I also believe that financial investment in women is the best investment you can make, because if you invest in a woman who actually goes to school, has many has a business, they will invest in their kids, they will solve malnutrition and stunting growth problems, because that’s just the way mothers are.

So when I take a look at it from the African Development Bank, that is why I launched what’s called the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) and the goal is to mobilize $5 billion for women businesses alone in Africa because women run business in Africa but they don’t have access to land, collateral and the finance, which is simply bias by financial institutions against women, so I decided that we would change that. Last year we approved $1.5 billion just for businesses for banks and financial institutions for the businesses of women, so when you talk about inclusiveness; I can include you and put you at the bottom, but I think that women deserve inclusiveness at the top not only in finance but also in the boardrooms.

What is AfDB’s motto in terms of inspiring inclusion?
Making a difference every single day making, in the lives of young people, women, our communities and I’m passionate about rural communities, making a difference in our economy and making sure that Africa can develop their pride, that’s what we do every single day. When I was elected president in 2015, I made a decision that we can’t just be known as Bank but the most important part of that for me is the Development. We are a very innovative financial institution; just last year we were rated the best multilateral financial institution in the world and last year we were also ranked as the most transparent financial institution in the world. Today we are in global financial institution working in Africa and I say that because I have great staff, fantastic shareholders, board members but every single day, to your point of what is the motto is constantly working selflessly and impatient to accelerate Africa’s development.