Pretoria - African Union Commission Chairperson (AUC) Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has welcomed the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Akinwumi Adesina, who assumed office this week.
“It is my great pleasure to welcome you as President of the African Development Bank. Congratulations, once again, for your brilliant election during the last annual meeting of the bank in May 2015,” said Dlamini Zuma on Wednesday.
Adesina, who is the former Nigerian Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, formally assumed office as the president of the AfDB on Tuesday.
He is the eightth elected president of the AfDB. Seven other candidates had also applied for the job.
Dlamini Zuma said she was looking forward to working with Adesina.
“I look forward to working with you, and strengthening the productive relationship our two institutions have cultivated over the years. I wish you the very best of success, as we work together to make Africa a much better place for our people,” Dlamini Zuma wrote to Adesina as he begins his five-year mandate at the helm of the AfDB.
The AUC and AfDB have a long history of collaboration, crowned in their joint efforts towards the creation and articulation of Agenda 2063, Africa’s fresh roadmap toward integration, the building of prosperity, sustainable growth and development.
Adesina is the first Nigerian to be elected to the position. He succeeded Rwanda’s Donald Kaberuka, who held the position for 10 years.
The AfDB Group is a regional multilateral development finance institution established to contribute to the economic development and social progress of African countries that are the institution’s Regional Member Countries (RMCs).
The AfDB was founded following an agreement signed by member states on 14 August 1963, in Khartoum, Sudan, which became effective on 10 September 1964.
The bank comprises three entities: the African Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). - SAnews.gov.za
