The immediate past president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, recently stepped down from the multilateral pan-African bank, leaving behind a rare legacy and valuable lessons for African leaders. During his decade-long tenure at the helm, Adesina transformed the pragmatic fortunes of the bank, leading a homegrown developmental renaissance.
Amid challenges, the bank upheld integrity and a stellar credit rating to emerge as one of the most credible financial institutions in the world. On that account, Adesina gave Nigeria its best ambassadorial representation in a long while. He is indeed the character sketch of a new Nigeria and Africa that is still possible.
Adesina, penultimate weekend, handed over the AfDB leadership baton to his successor, Dr Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania. The last decade of his leadership is a story of grit and grace, culminating in Adesina passing on a bank that is just as upbeat as his signature mien. In his final address at the ceremony, Adesina said: “I came to the bank with a mission, not to take a job. That mission… to be known not just for being a great bank, but for being Africa’s most trusted development financier,” a remark that was received with applause and a standing ovation from African leaders and global partners present.
Indeed, the AfDB under his leadership metamorphosed dramatically during its tenure, growing the bank’s capital from $93 billion in 2015 to $318 billion in 10 years. The AfDB has gained ranking prestige as Global Finance’s world best multilateral financial institution in 2021, and was feted for its transparency in last year’s aid transparency index.
That bank’s greatest achievements are not in the funds or credit rating recognition, but in lives touched through the AfDB’s top five priorities that the administration led with passion.
For instance, the Light Up and Power Africa saw to electrification projects such as the recent approval of $43.6 million for a transmission line in Mozambique to support universal electrification. Feed Africa fund programmes for climate resilience and food security in regions.
Industrialise Africa supports subnational entities, as seen in its ZAR 2.5 billion loan to the City of Johannesburg for urban infrastructure like water, electricity, and waste management. Integrate Africa focused on building transport corridors and regional connectivity, including support for the Joint Standard Gauge Railways project involving Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Improve Quality of Life priority encompasses projects in water, sanitation, and housing. A recent example is the funding of the Transformative and Sustainable Water and Sanitation Programme Phase I in Rwanda.
The Bank cumulatively orchestrated over $102 billion in support for African economies. More than $55 billion poured into infrastructure—power grids, roads, water and sanitation, ports, airports, and digital networks. The result was the 565 million people directly impacted through expanding electricity access, building transport corridors and digital infrastructure.
Notably, Adesina and Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, last year launched Mission 300, a private-public collaboration to connect an additional 300 million sub-Saharan Africans – half of the 600 million living without electricity – to grids by 2030.
The former president remarkably didn’t forget his roots. As an Obafemi Awolowo University-trained scholar and Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture under President Goodluck Jonathan, Adesina, among others, has been a formidable development partner of the Nigerian cause. For instance, the Adesina-led AfDB, in a strategic partnership with the Federal Government and key international partners—the Islamic Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Africa Grow Together Fund—inaugurated Phase 1 implementation of the Special Agro-Processing Zone (SAPZ) programme worth $510 million, covering eight states of Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Ogun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross Rivers and Imo States; and the FCT.
The launch catalysed momentum for SAPZ Phase 2, with 28 additional states already positioned to join this agricultural renaissance. That is just a cluster of special agro-industrial processing zones ongoing in 27 sites across 11 countries in Africa, including Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Togo, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Mali.
In an interview some days ago, the 65-year-old Nigerian was characteristically optimistic about the continent’s future, though realistic about the challenges, many of which, he said, stem from injustice in the way African countries are treated. He has really been vocal in championing the advocacy for justice and fair deals for Africa.
For instance, he severely lashed out at Western insincerity in tackling climate change impacts in Africa, which accounts for just three per cent of global carbon emissions yet records over 40 per cent of its impacts, losing $7 to $15 billion in GDP yearly. He insisted that Africa needs $2.7 trillion to combat the effects of climate change by 2030 and not the pittance routinely handed down as climate change interventions.
Similarly, Adesina charged that Africa has no business going cap in hand for dole out partnership summits, if and only if it demands to be fairly treated in the mineral resources negotiation and the lopsided commodity pricing market. “Africa has oil, gas, minerals, metals; we have forests, we have everything. But we are not getting anything from it because international corporations and national corporations don’t pay the relevant taxes and royalties. If we manage our natural resources well, Africa has no reason to be poor. We have $6.2 trillion in natural resources,” he said at The Guardian’s 40th anniversary in 2023. No doubt Africa is blessed with rich, productive land and manageable forests. It is also blessed with oil, gas, metals and other mineral resources, all of which, if properly harnessed, can make a marked difference in the continent.
His outspoken mien and first-class candour could not help but stir the hornet’s nest in the Global North, among whom are shareholders and financial partners of the AfDB. They, led by the United States, tested his character in a manner that placed his second-term bid on the line in 2020. Besides his “flamboyant” outlook and bow ties that upset traducers, who do not expect such of “a Nigerian banker”, ethics committees found no flaws in his stellar qualities – leaving behind a huge marker for African leaders across the board.
His trial showed the high-wire politics and unforgiving hypocrisy of the international system. Yet, he also exemplified the winning strategy through exceptionality, integrity, transparency and stellar records that no racism can blemish.
Therein abound lessons for Nigeria and African leaders. Adesina stayed committed to the noble cause of developing the continent and putting smiles on the weary faces of the people. He piloted the affairs of the Bank, not for jamboree or white elephant projects, but for real infrastructure that delivers measurable impacts to the people. “Projects must not just exist on paper,” Adesina said.
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Finance, Dr Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the handing-over ceremony, lauded Adesina’s impact. “He has shown us how development is not an abstract concept, but a powerful force that touches and transforms millions of lives. His legacy is not just in the projects he built, but in the excellence, integrity, and innovative spirit he instilled in every person he led,” she said.
Truly, he stood firmly on the side of Africa despite opportunities of betrayal that could have gone unnoticed. It is for this and more that world leaders compliment him as Africa’s optimist-in-chief, and he has also received the highest national honours and highways named after him in African countries. Reaffirming his dedication to the continent’s progress, Adesina said: “I will live as an African and die as an African, and if at all possible, ask God on the last day to resurrect me as an African!”
Adesina has consistently proven his record as a triple-A-rated international icon. Yet, no matter how high he flew, he never forgot his roots. At a time Nigeria is stepping on its diplomatic shoelaces and falling apart on the international front, it is the likes of Adesina that the presidency should urgently assemble and dispatch as ambassadors to critical foreign missions as the faces of a new Nigeria that is on the horizon.
The person of Adesina perfectly fits the bill of the Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations, the United States, or both! Even preferably, the African union has a unique opportunity in Adesina to reinvigorate its continental activities, and entrench enduring security, to its full potential and the desired level. The Nigerian government can help to advocate a key role for him in this regard.
By extension, it is the likes of Adesina – and there are still a number of them at home and abroad – that Nigeria needs across all layers of political and economic leadership. Genuine political parties and their youth caucuses should demand similar character traits and performance track records from those 2027 political aspirants and ‘problems’, masquerading as ‘solutions’ to national woes.
