ECOWAS endorses AfDB President for second term in office

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS has endorsed the candidacy of African Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina for a second term in office.

The decision was taken at the 56th ordinary sessions of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS held in Abuja on Saturday.

“In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of office as President of the African Development Bank, the Authority endorses his candidacy for a second term as the President of the bank,” ECOWAS said in a communique issued after the meeting.

Adesina, who is the eighth elected President of the AfDB Group was elected to the first five-year term on May 28, 2015, by the bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process is expected to play out next year.

Adesina is a renowned development economist and the first Nigerian to serve as the President of the Bank Group.

He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, including with the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, where he instituted many reforms in the agricultural sector.

ECOWAS President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou commended the bank’s involvement in West Africa and said it had provided invaluable technical and financial interventions in the implementation of numerous projects and programmes.

The summit noted the role of the bank in the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.

The statement said, “The Authority takes note of the region’s improved economic performance, with ECOWAS real GDP growing by 3.3 percent in 2019 against 3.0 percent in 2018, in a context characterised by a decline in inflationary pressures and sound public finances.”

It urged the member states to continue economic reforms and ensure a sound macroeconomic environment with a view to accelerating the structural transformation of ECOWAS economies and facilitating the achievement of the monetary union by 2020.

The Authority commended efforts made on currency and monetary policy convergence in ECOWAS and laid out plans to advance the plan.

The communique read in part, “The Authority commends the Ministerial Committee for the progress made with the implementation of the ECOWAS Single Currency Programme.”