“Together, we
can build a stronger and more prosperous Africa, with smart infrastructure..
new economic opportunities that will deliver quality jobs and hope for millions
of youths and women, revival of Africa’s rural economies to lift many out of
poverty..” These words were contained in the acceptance speech of the new
President of the the African Development Bank.
But who really is Akinwumi A.
Adesina?
Akinwumi
Ayodeji Adesina was born in Nigeria. His father earned $0.1 as a farm labourer,
raised him and his siblings in a one roomed hut. Until his appointment in 2011
as Nigeria’s Federal Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development , he was
Vice President of Policy and Partnership for the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Prior to joining AGRA in 2008, he was associate
director for Food Security at the Rockefeller Foundation, based here in
Nairobi.
Dr. Adesina
erupted on the global agricultural development scene in 2007 when was awarded
the presitigious YARA Prize for pioneering innovative approaches to improve
access for agricultural inputs for African Farmers. In 2010, UN Secretary Ban
Ki moon appointed him as one of 17 world leaders to galvanize international
support for the MDGs. Adesina also serves on the Global Panel on Agriculture
and Food Systems for Nutrition. In 2013, Dr. Adesina was voted African of the
year by Forbes Magazine, not for his material self worth, but for leading
unprecendents, transformative reforms in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
As Nigeria’s
Minister for Agriculture, Adesina is credited with ending decades of government
subsidized corruption in the fertilizer sector, introducing the Electronic
Wallet System through which farmers receive vouchers for seeds and fertilizer,
adding an additional 21 million tonnes to Nigeria’s domestic food supply; contributing
to the decline of Nigeria’s food import bill from $6,5 billion in 2011 to $4.3
billion in 2014. Forbe’s Africa editor Chris Bishop described Adesina as a man
on a mission to help Africa feed itself.
That is the man
and his record. But what is he up against? Founded in 1964 as as Africa;s
multilateral development finance institution, the African Development Bank
(AfDB) has had a troubled history. The bank was on the brink of collapse in the
1990 but turned around in the under Omar Kabbaj’s leadership and regained its
AAA credit rating.
In 2010, under
the leadership of outgoing President Donald Kaberuka, the AfDB’s authorized
capital trippled to $101.4 billion. Entrained in the Africa rising narrative,
the AfDB Strategy for 2013-2022 aims to improve the quality of Africa’s growth
by ensuring that “growth is shared and not isolated for all African citizens”.
However, the strategy is diffuse, and lacks a coherent and intergrated clarity
on how the what it defines as operational priorities (e.g., infrastructure and governance and accountability) would hang
together with the the so-called areas of special focus (e.g.,agriculture and
gender) to deliver real transformations in quality of life for a majority of
Africans.
Africa’s
challenges are both complex and formidable. For example attaining the proposed
17 Sustainable Developed Goals (SDGs) will require Africa to invest between
over $2 trillion per year. In 2013, AfDB sector approvals in loans and grants
were estimated at only $3.5 billion. It
is estimated that AfDB provides about 6 percent of total development assistence
to Africa. There are clear limits to what a bank the size of AfDB can do.
What can the
AfDB really do over the next 10 years under the stewardship of President
Adesina? With limited financial resources, the AfDB could play a leadership
role, re-defining development priorities of regional member countries through
high quality research evidence. AfDB can forge strategic partmeships with
larger movers of Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct Investment
to drive more integrated and diversified investments to deepen and broaden
Africa’s growth.
AfDB under the
leadership of Adesina should direct its infrastructure investments more
strategically to revitalize and transform Africa’s agriculture through
appropriate mechanization, create new rural prosperity zones and bring women
and youth into lucrative value chains (technology, processing, packaging,
logistics, warehousing, insurance). Adesina should direct more investments into
vocational and university education to provide world class skills and drive
enterprice and innovation to power and stamp Africa’s claim on the 21st
century.
Adesina must revamp
the AfDB’s strategy, invest in Africa’s distinct comparative advantage, its
youth, women and its vast but untapped agricultural resources to build a
stronger and more prosperous Africa.
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