Adesina - Afrikan Heroes

Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala Becomes Senior Vice President at AfDB

March 3, 2020

With the retirement of Mr. Charles Boamah who has reached the mandatory 62 years retirement age at the African Development Bank (AfDB) Ms.Tshabalala has been tapped to replace the former Senior Vice President of the Bank. Mr. Boamah retired from the Bank today after 23 years of meritorious service.

The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina announced the appointment of Ms. Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala as Acting Senior Vice President of the Bank with immediate effect. Ms. Tshabalala, currently the Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer for the African Development Bank Group, joined the Bank on August 1, 2018. Ms. Tshabalala will replace, in this acting capacity, Mr. Charles Boamah, the former Senior Vice President of the Bank, who retires effectively from the Bank today after 23 years of meritorious service to the institution.

Commenting on the appointment, the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said “Ms. Tshabalala has demonstrated highly commendable senior leadership management qualities and brings a strong perspective on results orientation and delivery that will be important as the Bank moves ahead with the delivery of its programs and commitments. I am very pleased to appoint her to step up into this role as Acting Senior Vice President, as the Bank manages this senior leadership transition, to ensure stability and continuity of our work and operations. I am confident she will do very well. She will continue to hold simultaneously her position as Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer in this interim period”.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Adesina Receives 8th African Leadership of the Year Award

March 1, 2020

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank

Over 200 leading African political, business, and diplomatic leaders gathered in Johannesburg at the weekend for the 8th African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Award dinner to witness Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, being honored as the African of the Year 2019. Themed ‘Africa for Africans – Exploring the Gains of a Connected Continent’, the evening brought together dignitaries including South African Deputy President, David D Mabuza, South African Ministers Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Zulu, and Dr. Ken Giami, Publisher of African Leadership Magazine.

The highlight of the event was the keynote speech delivered by Dr. Adesina. His passion for the continent was palpable, connecting with the attentive audience throughout his speech. Dr. Adesina expressed his humility in being “recognised for my very modest achievements and contributions to Africa. Humbled to be nominated by what I gather to be 60% of the votes cast by some 1 million people, humbled to be at the helm of an organisation that is making a tremendous difference across Africa – the African Development Bank. An organisation that is daily making prosperity a reality.”

He dedicated the award to his wife, Grace, the Board, staff, and colleagues at the bank, his mother, and “to the young mothers, struggling to bring up a child, to the farmer in search of a better tomorrow, to the youth of Africa longing for a better future, and to Africa’s journalists who risk their lives in helping to tell Africa’s true story.”

Dr Adesina, the visionary behind the African Development Bank’s High 5 strategy, explained that primary focus of the African Development Bank is “to light up and power Africa, to feed Africa, to industrialise Africa, to integrate Africa, and to improve the quality of life of the people of Africa. Five simple, strategic, and highly focused objectives.”

South African Deputy President, David Mabuza, delivered the second keynote speech. Accepting the Award on behalf of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny, Mabuza said: “the struggles of our people and their development aspirations remain fundamentally intertwined with those of fellow Africans elsewhere on the Continent.”

He added: “these are the values that President Oliver Tambo and President Nelson Mandela taught us. Our commitment to the cause of a prosperous and better Africa is unwavering. It is in that spirit that as a country, we have placed our resources both human and financial, to the resolutions of conflicts.” Dr. Adesina was elected the 8th President of the African Development Bank in 2015. He has been a leader in the African agricultural innovation space for over 30 years. He has contributed to Africa’s economic growth by helping to strengthen the continent’s food security and promoting a workable agribusiness model.

Under his leadership, in the past four years, the bank has helped 18 million people get electricity, 141 million people get agricultural technologies, 13 million people get finance through private sector investee companies, 101 million people get improved transport services, and 60 million people get better water and sanitation.

In his remarks, Adesina urged Africans to rise, be bold and determined. “Africa does not need anyone to believe in her or to affirm her place and position in history. Africa will and must develop with pride. For right on the inside of us, as Africans, lies our greatest instrument of successes: confidence!” Adesina said.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Adesina receives Emeka Anyaoku lifetime achievement award

October 9, 2019

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina has received The Emeka Anyanoku Lifetime Achievement Award. Presenting the Award, the former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku described Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank’s work as “legendary, unprecedented and worthy of emulation.”

The Award which is under the auspices of The Hallmarks of Labour Foundation, a non-profit that recognizes Africans who have achieved success through hard work, honesty, integrity, and justice in every field of human endeavour took place in Lagos recently. Previous recipients of the award include Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.

Africa’s Private Sector Gets $3.5 billion Support from Japan and the AfDB.

Thanking the foundation for the recognition, Adesina said that the African Development Bank had helped 181 million people directly through its investments in the past four years

“There is still much to do. We have gone some way, climbing the steep mountainside of Africa’s development, yet there’s still a long way to go until we reach the mountaintop,” he told the gathering of top government officials, industry leaders, and diplomats.

Togo records the highest proportion of female inventors who applied for patents in Africa and the world, between 1998 and 2017

The Bank has connected 16 million people to electricity and provided 70 million people with improved agricultural technologies to achieve food security. The African Development Bank also gave 9 million people access to finance from private sector companies, provided 55 million people access to improved transport, and 31 million people with water and sanitation.

Adesina congratulated his fellow awardees and urged them to be relentless in their efforts to build humanity.

“Recognition is never the expectation or endgame when you are passionate about your work. But when one’s modest contributions and efforts are found worthy of honor, it is both a surprise and a delight,” he noted.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.