May 28 (Reuters)
Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina won an election on Thursday to be the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the lender said.
After six rounds of voting that saw seven rivals from across the continent defeated, Adesina secured around 60 percent of the vote in an election held in Ivory Coast, where the AfDB is based.
Adesina will take over from outgoing bank president Donald Kaberuka of Rwanda on Sept. 1 to become the 50-year-old body’s eighth leader.
“It went very well. We are really elated and grateful we have delivered this for Nigeria. We had a great candidate and a lot of support,” Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters after the result was announced.
The bank, which was founded in 1964 to provide capital to foster economic development and alleviate poverty in its member states, is financed by both Africa nations and shareholder countries outside the continent.
Adesina will have to guide the Bank through the continent’s increasingly complex financial environment, where nations are turning to non-traditional partners like China and international debt markets.
