Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania has been elected President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group at the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
He beat four other candidates after three rounds of voting to become the ninth president of the pan-African development finance institution, a position he would hold for the next fve years.
Mr. Ould Tah gained 76.18 per cent of the votes cast, beating Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo who had 20.26 per cent, and Senegal’s Amadou Hott, 3.55 per cent. Chad’s Mahamat Abbas Tolli was the first to be eliminated, taking just 0.88 per cent of the vote, followed by South Africa’s Swazi Tshabalala, 5.9 per cent.
Mr. Ould Tah, former Director General of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), will succeed Dr Akinwumi Adesina who served as the Bank’s president for 10 years.
The results were announced by Niale Kaba, Minister of Planning and Development for Côte d’Ivoire, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Bank Group, in an election, which had Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, as the Returning Officer.
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He was elected by the Bank’s Board of Governors, comprising Finance and Economy Ministers or Central Bank Governors of the Bank Group’s 81 regional and non-regional member countries.
The election of the new president comes at a crucial time in the Bank Group’s six decades of existence as the continent raced against time to achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both initiatives are embedded in the AfDB’s ‘High 5’ agenda to “Light up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa.”
According to the Bank, Africa has remained resilient despite climate shocks, economic disruption, and a shifting geopolitical landscape, but needs to move faster or risk falling behind on delivering on its developmental goals.
It is expected that the Mauritanian national, would bring his over 35 years of experience in Africa and international finance to continue the pursuit of the Bank’s goals for the next five years.
At BADEA, he led a full transformation that quadrupled the Bank’s balance sheet, secured a AAA rating, and positioned it among the top-rated development banks focused
on Africa.
He is also a former Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance of Mauritania and has held senior roles in multilateral institutions and led crisis response, financial reform, and innovative resource mobilization for Africa. That includes the establishment of BADEA’s US$1 billion callable capital programme for African MDBs.
Already, Mr. Ould Tah set out a four cardinal points agenda for his administration; reform Africa’s financial architecture, turning the continent’s demographic boom into economic strength, industrialising while harnessing natural resources and unlocking large-scale capital.
