The Economic Community of West African States 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 session 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 in 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 communiqué made available to our media source on Monday.
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 a similar 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 group.
He had served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, including the Rockefeller Foundation.
He 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 on the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.
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 the currency and monetary policy convergence in ECOWAS and laid out plans to advance the plan.
It urged member states to comply with the convergence criteria.
The heads of state and government took note of the proposed symbols of the ECOWAS single currency and adopt ‘Ec’ as the ECO symbol.
