Congrats my Boss! President of African Development Bank

President-elect AfDB, Dr. Akin Adesina

    After 50 years of the existence of African Development Bank, Nigeria won the exalted position of the Presidency of the continental organization. Dr. Akinwumi Adesina had a landslide victory after a very tough contest with other 7 contestants from across Africa. The rule is that a winner must score 50.1% and above of the regional votes.

Having attended for the first time, i could see that the election of the position of the African Development Bank cannot be regarded as a child’s play in any sense. The election, usually witnessed and conducted by member countries as well as non member community, including France, United States, Japan and China took place in SOFITEL Hotel, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.  The week-long event culminated in a series of vote, alignment and realignment, intrigues, power play and political manoeuvrings; which saw Akin Adesina emerged as the winner at about 4.30pm, 28th May 2015, having scored 60.50% regional vote and 58.10 of the total votes. 

Adesina's election score Board

With the support of God, Adesina did his home work quite well to make him stand out in all the preliminary interviews and presentations to the group; he is equally well qualified for the job. Let’s once again look at his background:
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has intimidating credentials and enviable track records of outstanding achievements within and outside Africa. He had contributed in so many ways to improve agriculture and food security in some African countries. Mr. Adesina has over 20 years of experience in African agriculture, development policy and rural development 

 

Dr Adesina holds Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Economics with First Class Honors from the University Of Ife, Nigeria (1981) and later obtained his PhD in Agricultural Economics in 1988 from Purdue University, USA where he won the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award for his research work which earned him the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1988. This award launched him into world career in agricultural development.

 His career spanned through CGIA, WARDA and ICRISAT in research leadership positions and later joined the Rockefeller Foundation, New York in 1998 where he served as a senior scientist for Africa and in 1999-2003 as Rockefeller Foundation representative for Southern Africa, with a base in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Dr Adesina championed the convening of the 2006 African Fertilizer Summit, Abuja Nigeria and has since 2003 remain an Associate Director (Food Security) at the Rockefeller Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya.

In 2007, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina was awarded the YARA price for the African Green Revolution which took place in Oslo for his contribution and outstanding role in development of agro-inputs network in Africa. In addition to that, Adesina played key role in the formulation of soil health policy which was adopted by world Institutions, the African Union, the New Partnership for African Development and the 40 African countries

In 2008, he was awarded the Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award, by his Alma Mater, Purdue University’s College of Agriculture for his inspiring leadership in spearheading transformative change in African agriculture.

Dr. Adesina is a consultant on agricultural development issues in Africa to African Development Bank, the World Economic Forum, World Bank and other global development institutions.  

In 2009, Mr. Adesina was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Kid-Moon into the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Advocacy Group. The group is responsible for driving the rapid achievement of the MD Goals across the globe. Ban Kid Moon described Dr. Adesina as an “eminent personality’’ who had shown outstanding leadership in promoting the implementation of the MDGs.

Before his appointment as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina was Vice President (Policy and Partnerships) of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). AGRA was established with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its aimed at bringing a green revolution to Africa, and lifting millions of poor farmers out of poverty and food insecurity.

Adesina on Rice Pyramid in Kano

In his 4 years of service as the Agriculture Minister, the country witnessed a rapid unprecedented improvement in food production, reaching a total of about 21 million MT; e.g. rice production rose from 3,522,000 MT in 2011 to 7, 075, 300 MT in 2014; Cassava production rose from 40million MT to 55million MT in 2014. Similar fits were recorded in other commodities such as Livestock, (beef, poultry, leather); Oil-Palm, Horticulture, Sorghum, Cocoa e.t.c.

The Leadership Newspaper also bestowed the award of the Public Officer of the Year 2013 on Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

Recent Degree from Purdue University

Little wonder, the Forbes Magazine recognized his works and awarded him ‘Forbes Man of the Year 2013’ for his outstanding contribution to food security and poverty reduction in Africa. Africa in general stands to benefit from his wealth of experience, his passion, honesty, transparency and accountability. 

Just before the attainment of the position of the President of the AfDB, a Honourary Doctor of Agriculture was awarded him by his Alma matter, Purdue University, Indianapolis, USA May 2015. This was in recognition of his contribution to the development of agriculture and food security in Africa and Nigeria specifically.  

Congrats once again my boss!