In order to guide the region’s leading development finance organization through challenging times in the face of funding cuts from the United States and other important partners, Mauritanian economist Sidi Ould Tah was elected as the African Development Bank’s next president on Thursday.
The bank’s board of governors, which consists of central bank governors and finance ministers from its 81 regional and non-regional member nations, chose Tah, 60. He will succeed Akinwumi Adesina of Nigeria, who is resigning after two terms, on September 1 for a five-year tenure.
To choose between the five contenders, the election required three voting rounds. With 76.18% of the vote, Tah defeated former Senegalese Economy Minister Amadou Hott (3.55%) and Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo (20.26%), the World Bank’s vice president.
The vote took place at the bank’s annual meetings in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where discussions have focused mostly on economic challenges, such as financial distress and climatic shocks.
According to observers, Tah’s leadership was essential in guiding the organization through a time when African economies were under increasing strain and international development funding was becoming more constrained.
Bismark Rewane, an economist and the CEO of Financial Derivatives Co. in Lagos, stated that the AfDB’s job is more important than ever. At a time when “no one is going to pick the chestnut out of the fire” for African nations, he urged “African resilience.”
“For Africa to prosper, it needs to think more creatively and inwardly,” Rewane stated.
Tah has been in charge of the Khartoum, Sudan-based Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa since 2015.
In the past, he served as the president’s economic counselor and held high-level positions in the Mauritania government, including minister of agriculture, minister of economics, and minister of rural development.
READ ALSO:
