Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa has joined Nigerians and the Global Community to congratulate Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, as he won another five-year term as the 9th President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
In a statement by Gabriel Odu of Media, Public Relations and Protocol Unit of NIDCOM, the NIDCOM Boss described the re-election of Akinwunmi Adesina as President of the Continental Institution as the right thing to do given his plethora of achievements stressed that many Nigerians were mostly known for their integrity, dexterity, innovation and drive; making them most suitable candidates for international accolades and leadership roles, and not criminals as most people are quick to project the country as.
She said ” I hoped that his coming back as the regional Chief of the Bank, will pave more grounds and strategies to develop Africa in various sectors.”
Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina became the 8th elected President of the AfDB on May 28, 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. He assumed office at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan on September 1, 2015.
The 60-year-old Adesina is a notable development economist and agricultural development expert with 25 years of international experience. He is the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group, and first also to be re-elected
He has to his portfolio, served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, which saw radical policy reforms in the fertilizer sector and implemented innovative agricultural investment programs
Dr. Adesina was previously Vice-President (Policy and Partnerships) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He was also Associate Director (Food Security) at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York (1998-2008) and its Regional Office Director and Representative for Southern Africa.
The AfDB Head was Principal Economist and Social Science Research Coordinator for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Principal Economist and Coordinator of the West Africa Rice Economics Task Force at the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) and an Assistant Principal Economist at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). In addition, he was the President of the African Association of Agricultural Economists from 2008-2010.
Adesina is a multi-recipient of international awards in leadership and work in agriculture. In 2010, Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed him as one of 17 global leaders to lead the Millennium Development Goals, along with Bill Gates, the Spanish Prime Minister and the President of Rwanda. He was named “Person of the Year” by Forbes Africa magazine in 2013.
Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina holds a first-class honours Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife, Nigeria in 1981. In 1988 he completed a PhD in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in the US, where he won the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award for his research work.
He also won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1988, which opened his international career in global agricultural development. He was born on February 6, 1960, and speaks French and English, fluently.
