African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has been named 2022 Man of the Year (Africa) by Exclusive Men of the Year (EMY), for his visionary leadership as the president of the African Development Bank Group and for his outstanding contribution to Africa during his period as agriculture minister of Nigeria.
The EMY awards are organized by the EMY Africa Magazine (https://bit.ly/3C8VdEy), “a premier men’s magazine that addresses the people, places, ideas and issues that shape men’s personal expressions, development and experiences.”
Akinwumi Adesina
“When we look around, we see different people making their contributions to society. We know Africa is going to be Africa if we harness our agricultural value and go up the value chain. One man has stood up for his inspiration, for his motivation and for making us believe with a vision and strategy that we can achieve this,” said UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Charles Abani, who announced the prize during a ceremony held on 1 October in Accra, Ghana.
As Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015, Adesina is credited with turning the agriculture sector of Nigeria around within four years. Under his tenure, Nigeria ended 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector by developing and implementing an innovative electronic wallet system, which directly provided farmers with subsidized farm inputs at scale using their mobile phones. Within the first four years of its launch, this electronic wallet system reached 15 million farmers.
With Adesina at the helm, the African Development Bank Group achieved the highest capital increase since its establishment in 1964. On 31 October 2019, shareholders from 80 member countries raised the general capital from $93 billion to a historic $208 billion.
Adesina has also led other achievements such as the Bank’s bold and swift response to the Covid-19 pandemic with the launch of a landmark $3 billion Covid-19 Social Bond followed by a Crisis Response Facility of up to $10 billion. In May this year, the African Development Bank Group’s Board of Directors approved a $1.5 billion Emergency Food Production Facility to help tackle the global food crisis sparked by the Russian-Ukraine conflict. The funds will help 20 million African farmers produce an extra 38 million metric tons of food to address growing fears of starvation and food insecurity on the continent.
In announcing the Man of The Year (Africa) award, EMY recognized Dr Adesina’s contribution as “a bold reformer” and “globally renowned development economist and agriculture development expert, with more than 30 years of experience in development.”
Since 2016, EMY Africa has celebrated the best in men’s achievements across local industry, community, culture and public service. Past recipients of the EMY Africa Awards have been inspirational men with accomplished or promising careers who have made important contributions to life in African communities.
Receiving the award on behalf of Dr. Adesina, African Development Bank Ghana Country manager for Ghana Eyerusalem Fasika thanked the EMY team and all the partners for the recognition.
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
The President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina has been named as a champion of Africa’s Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative. The appointment was made at a forum held in the margins of the One Planet Summit 20201 to mobilise support for the ambitious project to plant an 8,000 km swathe of trees and other vegetation across the Sahara and Sahel regions of Africa. The green wall will act as a barrier against desertification and aims to create over 10 million green jobs in the region.
Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group
“I would also like to welcome the commitment of Dr. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, who has agreed to take on the role of resource mobilization champion and help raise, by 2030, all the necessary funds for the realization of the Great Green Wall,” French President Emmanuel Macron told participants. In the role of champion, Adesina will lead the mobilisation of political and economic support for the initiative.
“The Great Green Wall Initiative is the first step on the way to nature-based solutions as well as solutions based on the vitality of African eco-solutions,” said Macron. “France is very committed to this region from the standpoint of security and sustainability. We need to beef up the initiative for all the 11 countries.”
During the forum, Adesina announced that the Bank would mobilize up to $6.5 billion over the next 5 years for the Great Green Wall Initiative, joining multilateral development institutions, governments and development partners that have pledged over $14 billion. The World Bank, for instance, pledged over $5 billion in funding to advance land restoration and degradation issues and to address challenges around Lake Chad.
Adesina praised the initiative. “The Great Green Wall is part of Africa’s environmental defense system — a shield against the onslaughts of desertification and degradation,” he said. “The future of the Sahel region of Africa depends on the Great Green Wall. Without the Great Green Wall, in the face of climate change and desertification, the Sahel may disappear.”
The Bank will extend resources through a range of mechanisms, partnerships and operations, and draw on internal and external sources of funding, including the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), among others. Adesina noted that ongoing Bank initiatives such as Desert to Power, a programme to build the largest solar zone in the world in the Sahel, will enhance and complement the Great Green Wall. “This will provide electricity for 250 million people and help to protect the Great Green Wall. If there is no access to energy, the Great Green Wall will be no more than trees waiting to be turned into charcoal.” The Bank has committed to mobilize $25 billion for climate finance by 2025.
The One Planet Summit 2021 is hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The Summit, held annually, brings together political leaders, private sector decision makers, foundations, NGOs and citizens to identify and accelerate funding for climate, biodiversity and ocean solutions and mobilize all stakeholders in public life and the economic world in collaborative efforts. Other Great Green Wall Champions include musicians Baaba Maal and Ricky Kej and environmental activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim.
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
Nigeria and other African countries would lose between $7bn and $15bn per annum due to climate change as it is behind track in making the required changes needed to adapt to climate change as it was wreaking havoc on economies, lives and livelihoods on the continent. According to the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), African countries are foot-dragging in making the necessary changes.
President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina
He recalled that in 2019, tropical cyclone Idai and Kenneth swept under the economies of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, with 800 people dead and $2bn in losses. “And just four years ago, El Niño devastated East and Southern Africa with severe droughts. It is estimated that from this year, Africa will lose $7bn to $15bn per year due to climate change,” Adesina said.
The president stated that one of the key priorities of his five-year tenure was for the bank to drive investments in green growth and climate finance for Africa. He noted that the bank was already making progress with its financing for climate increased from nine per cent of its total portfolio in 2016 to 36 per cent by 2019.
According to him, by the end of 2021, AfDB would reach its target of 40 per cent of the total portfolio going into climate change financing. He added that the bank had also committed to providing $25bn in climate financing by 2025 and implementing the Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Financing Mechanism to insure countries against losses from extreme climate events.
Adesina said, “As a bank, we are committed to helping Africa build back from the COVID-19 crisis, better, stronger and with greater health and climate resilience. “Africa has been short-changed by climate change. Now, Africa should not be short-changed by climate finance.” The AfDB president said the group would continue its efforts to build Africa’s climate resilience and would work together with the Global Centre for Adaptation to mobilise and bridge the financing gap for Africa’s climate adaptation.
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
For the first time in its 55 years history, the annual general meetings of the African Development Bank will take place virtually as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event which will feature the Governors’ Dialogue will have a highpoint; the election of the president will be top of the agenda of the upcoming Meetings scheduled for 26-27 August 2020. This year, which marks the 55th meeting of the Bank’s Board of Governors and the 46th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank’s concessional arm, has the added significance of being an election year for the Bank’s president. The incumbent, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, is running as the sole candidate for a new five-year term.
Akinwumi Adesina, incumbent president, AfDB
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the continent’s shores in early March, over 1,000,000 confirmed cases of the virus have been recorded in Africa. The pandemic has hit the region’s economies hard in the wake of falling commodity prices and containment measures by governments that have led to country lockdowns. For several months, the Bank has been extending support to regional member countries in cushioning their economies, health systems, and citizens’ livelihoods from parallel health and economic impacts from COVID-19.
In April 2020, The Bank established a COVID-19 Response Facility of up to $10 billion to extend flexible support to African sovereign and non-sovereign operations. As of August 20, $2.29 billion in CRF funding had been approved for ADB member countries. A further $1.186 billion has been disbursed to ADF member countries, with approvals ongoing.
In March, the Bank also raised a record $3 billion with a COVID-19 social bond floated on the London Stock Exchange. The institution reached some major milestones during the trying times of lockdown with both Fitch and Standard & Poor credit rating agencies reaffirming the Bank’s AAA rating with a stable outlook.
During the meetings, Governors are expected to receive updates on a range of Bank developments since the previous Annual Meetings held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in June 2019. This will include the Bank’s seventh General Capital increase, which the Board of Governors approved in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire on October 31, 2019, and which increased the Bank’s capital base by a historic $115 billion to $208 billion. In December 2019, African Development Fund Donors pledged $7.6 billion, the fifteenth such replenishment, to help Africa’s poorest countries.
Top of the agenda for this year’s meeting would be the election of the President. The Governors will vote on August 27 to elect the eighth president of the Bank. Dr. Adesina, the first Nigerian to hold the post, was elected for a five-year term on May 28, 2015, by the Bank’s Board of Governors during that year’s Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Bank Governors are typically the finance and economy ministers or Central Bank Governors of the 54 African regional member countries and 27 non-regional member countries.
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
One good turn should deserve another good turn. But this appear not to be the case at Africa’s premier financial institution; African Development Bank (AfDB) as same forces that have kept Africa in its beggarly status are hell bent on thwarting the flying progress being made by one of Africa’s best technocrats; Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank. Founded in 1964 with the overarching objective to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries, thus contributing to poverty reduction, the Bank in the past five decades, has been at the forefront of driving Africa’s economic transformation, leveraging its diverse resources and unique know-how as an indigenous development finance institution.
Evidently delivering on its goals of reducing poverty and fostering inclusive growth on the continent, the African Development Bank has scaled up development support for its 54 regional member countries and recorded remarkable successes in recent years as part of a renewed push to help deliver life-changing impact to livelihoods. This could be gleaned from its investments which have benefited millions of Africans through its 10-year strategy which it began implementing from 2013.
But since the coming of Akinwumi Adesina, the Bank has become more than a development finance institution. It has become a socio-economic and development livewire of the continent, bringing together all other development and pseudo-development institutions to be on same page regarding Africa’s uplift, unlike what obtains before when different African institutions work at cross purposes to one another, thus garnering unprecedented faith from both regional and non-regional member countries on the AfDBs capacity as driver of continental development.
This is evidenced from the last General Capital Increase of the Bank which can be described as landmark. At the Bank’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in October 2019 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, governors representing shareholders from 80 member countries, approved a landmark $115 billion increase in capital for the financial institution. The increase, which is the largest in the history of the Bank since its establishment in 1964, more than doubled its capital from $93 billion to $208 billion. This solidifies the Bank’s leadership in development financing for the continent.
Add to that, the Bank also had a successful African Development Fund (ADF15) replenishment in December last year as donors announced a remarkable $7.6 billion to replenish the Fund. The replenishment represented a 35% increase in financing for low-income African countries at the end of the fifteenth replenishment of the African Development Fund, the concessional window of the Bank Group. The ADF which contributes to poverty reduction and economic and social development in the 38 least developed African countries by providing concessional funding for projects and programs, as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity-building activities has been the most active development oriented vehicle in the continent in recent times.
Akinwumi Adesina has given far more opportunities for African women to rise to the top of their game in business, and in their chosen fields of endeavours. It could be recalled that through his efforts with the resource mobilization for women-owned businesses at G7 summit of world leaders in Biarritz, France, last year, a global campaign of the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) to mobilize $3 billion for women entrepreneurs in Africa was launched, with strong support and resources from G7 leaders and nations. At that summit, French President Emmanuel Macron announced France’s contribution of $135 million to the AFAWA initiative to encourage women’s access to funding in Africa. The amount represents more than half the financial support of $251 million promised by the G7 governments.
No relenting on his oars, Dr. Adesina like Oliver Twist wanted some more, he co-hosted delegations from around the world for the first Global Gender Summit held in Africa, in Kigali, Rwanda. The gathering, attended by the presidents from Africa moved the needle forward on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa and around the world. Several agreements were signed to facilitate project financing for women entrepreneurs in Africa. And at the 2019 Africa Investment Forum (AIF), the Bank secured more than $40 billion worth of investment interest in less than 72 hours at the second edition of the Africa Investment Forum held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Forum, Africa’s largest marketplace for mobilizing capital, featured 56 boardroom deals valued at $67.6 billion – a 44% increase from the 2018 debut.
It is thanks to his commitments to transparency that he has established a legacy of a very open institution which contrasts to what obtains within the African milieu where most public institutions are filled with skeletons. Presently, the AfDB ranks 4th globally in transparency among 45 multilateral and bilateral institutions by Publish What You Fund, an outfit that consists of 19 developed economies. In addition, all the major rating agencies Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and the Japanese Credit Rating Agency have assigned it a triple-A rating. The outlook on all the ratings is stable and reflects the Bank’s strong membership support, healthy capital adequacy, preferred creditor status and strong financial condition.
In manifestation of its strength in innovation, the Bank has been at the forefront of knowledge adoption and application towards addressing everyday challenges which has turned it into a leading institution in pioneering financial instruments. For example, the AfDB’s Room2Run, a pioneering $1 billion synthetic securitization of a portfolio of its private sector loans to serve as a model for other multilateral development banks and investors as they seek new ways to release much-needed financing to catalyse private capital in developing markets, is the first of its type. Some other multilateral financial development institutions are working on adopting and domesticating it for their operations.
In March 2020, the AfDB launched what was celebrated globally as the Covid-19 Social Bond when it raised an exceptional $3 billion in a three-year bond to help ease the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods and Africa’s economies. The Fight Covid-19 social bond garnered interest from central banks and official institutions, bank treasuries, and asset managers, including socially responsible investors, with bids exceeding $4.6 billion. It was the largest dollar-denominated social bond ever launched in international capital markets and the largest US dollar benchmark ever issued by the Bank. It will pay an interest rate of 0.75%. Add to that, the AfDB celebrated another milestone with the listing of its Fight Covid-19 social bond on the London Stock Exchange on April 3. The bond is now available through its Sustainable Bond Market.
Another cutting edge innovative policy is the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation program (TAAT) which is leading the charge in helping to transform local staple crops across the continent, including maize, rice, wheat, cassava, high-iron beans, sorghum, millet, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes as well as livestock and fish. TAAT aims to raise food output in Africa by 100 million tons and lift 40 million people out of poverty by 2025 by harnessing high-impact, proven technologies to raise productivity, mitigate risks, and promote diversification and processing.
What Akinwumi Adesina is driving at the African Development Bank (AfDB) is a revolution that will not only harness Africa’s huge potential in agriculture to grow its economy; it will also cut significantly the wastage in foreign exchange through food importation which gulps up over half of its GDP annually and funds diverted to other sectors of the economy. Africa stands to lose if this revolution is cut short by same forces who stands to lose when Africa becomes self sufficient in food production.
Kelechi Deca, a journalist and economic development analyst lives in Lagos.
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
The President of the African Development Bank is battling to save his job from series of allegations from a whistleblower who accused him of multiple abuses and breaches of the bank’s code of ethics. Dr. Adesina has however, denied the allegations, terming them “spurious and unfounded allegations” that will not distract him from discharging his mandate of leading the institution. “I will stay calm and resolute. I will not be distracted. No amount of lies can ever cover up the truth. Soon the truth will come out,” he said in a statement.
President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina
However, a communication by a group of concerned staff members has exposed deeply-rooted internal wrangles ignited by discontent with Dr Adesina’s leadership style that they contend is characterised by disregard of the bank’s rules. In the communication addressed to the bank’s governors, the staff accuse Dr Adesina of breaching the bank’s code of conduct, unethical conduct, private gain, impediment to efficiency, preferential treatment, adversely affecting confidence in the integrity of the bank and involvement in political activity. “Our objective is to trigger investigations that will confirm or infirm these alleged cases of breach by the president of the code of conduct and so encourage ethical action and discourage or prevent fraud, corruption or misconduct and increase accountability,” says the communication.
The staff accuse Dr Adesina of lack of respect of internal rules and regulations in recruitment and went ahead to highlight numerous cases of nepotism and favouritism. According to the staff, although they filed the complaints in January to the bank’s ethics and audit committee in line with its whistle-blowing policy, no action was taken. Notably, the accusations against Dr Adesina come at a time when he is seeking a second five-year term at the helm of Africa’s foremost development finance institution. The election is slated to take place at the bank’s annual meeting of governors in May in Abidjan.
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
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has described as disappointing the quality of growth being recorded across many African countries noting that they are inadequate to make the desired impact in the lives of the people, and lift many out of poverty. This was in response to the newly released Africa Economic Outlook (AEO) which revealed that Africa’s economies are growing strongly, but not having desired impacts. According to Dr. Adesina, growth alone cannot meet the needs of the continent’s poorest citizens, because “nobody eats GDP,” he said as he unveiled the Bank’s flagship economic report.
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
The 2020 African Economic Outlook (AEO) showed that the continent’s economies are growing well, higher than the global average. The report projected a steady rise in growth in Africa from 3.4% in 2019 to 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021. According to the report, these figures do not tell the whole story. Across the continent, the poor are not seeing enough of the benefits of robust growth. Relatively few African countries posted significant declines in extreme poverty and inequality, which remain higher than in other regions of the world.
Inclusive growth occurred in only 18 of 48 African countries with data, the report revealed. According to Adesina “Growth must be visible. Growth must be equitable. Growth must be felt in the lives of people.”
The theme of the 2020 Africa Economic Outlook report, Developing Africa’s workforce for the future, calls for swift action to address human capital development in African countries, where inclusive growth has been held back by a mismatch between young workers’ skills and the needs of employers.
The Bank’s flagship report states that increased investments in education is key as well as progressive universalism in education spending—setting high priorities for the poor and disadvantaged and focusing on basic education first where social returns are highest. Its recommendations include improving access to education in remote areas, incentives such as free uniforms and text books, banning child labour and improving teaching standards.
To better match skills with job opportunities, the report recommends that governments need to develop a demand-driven education system in tune with rapidly emerging jobs in the private sector, including software engineers, marketing specialists and data analysts, the report says.
“Africa is blessed with resources, but its future lies in its people…education is the great equaliser. Only by developing our workforce will we make a dent in poverty, close the income gap between rich and poor, and adopt new technologies to create jobs in knowledge-intensive sectors,” said Hanan Morsy, Director of the Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research Department at the Bank.
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
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has endorsed the candidacy of African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina for a second term at the helm of the institution. The decision was announced at the end of the fifty-sixth ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, held on Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria.
African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina
“In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of 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 communique issued after the meeting.
Adesina is the eighth elected President of the African Development Bank Group. He was elected to the five-year term on 28 May 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process will play out next year.
Adesina is a renowned development economist and the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group. He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, including with the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, a career stint that was widely praised for his reforms in the agricultural sector. The former minister brought the same drive to the Bank, making agriculture one of the organization’s priority areas.
Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony, Adesina reminded the group of the African Development Bank’s investments in the region. “You can always count on the African Development Bank – your Bank,” Adesina told delegates.
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 ECOWAS summit included a progress report on the region’s economic performance. It noted the role of the African Development Bank in the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.
“The Authority takes note of the region’s improved economic performance, with ECOWAS real GDP growing by 3.3% in 2019 against 3.0% in 2018, in a context characterised by a decline in inflationary pressures and sound public finances,” the statement said.
“It urges the Member States to continue economic reforms and ensure a sound macroeconomic environment in Member States, 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 currency and monetary policy convergence in ECOWAS and laid out plans to advance the movement. These efforts are a key part of the regional integration agenda championed by the African Development Bank, as exemplified by the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to become the world’s largest free trade zone.
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
The precarious situation of many African countries, especially those whose economies depends wholly on petroleum came to the fore yesterday during a forum in New York. This came as President of African Development Bank President (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina unveiled ambitious plans to scrap coal power stations across the continent of Africa and switch to renewable energy. This unveiling took place at the United Nations climate talks early this week. While addressing leaders and officials from almost 200 countries in New York, on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Dr. Adesina outlined efforts to shutter coal-fired power plants and build the “largest solar zone in the world” in the arid Sahel belt. He noted that coal is the past, and renewable energy is the future, saying that the African Development Bank is getting out of coal.
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
This development according to Dr. Adesina is in line with the Bank’s $500 million green baseload scheme which will be rolled out in 2020 and is set to yield $5 billion of investment that will help African countries transition from coal and fossil fuel to renewable energy. He also talked about plans for $20 billion of investments in solar and clean energy that would provide the region’s 250 million people with 10,000 MW of electricity.
The United Nations Climate Summit was attended by presidents, princes and government ministers from around the world as they faced mounting pressure to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions and slow the global rise in temperatures. The UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres also warned of the “dying fossil fuel industry” and said it was still not too late to keep the global rise in temperatures below the benchmark figure of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The UN Scribe added that it will require fundamental transformations in all aspects of society on “how we grow food, use land, fuel our transport and power our economies”.
This is coming at a time many African countries are discovering new oil and gas deposits and exploration activities are going on at frenzied speed, to that effect, analysts say that Africa is in a very tight spot as many of them are presently focusing on growing their economies on fosil fuel at a time renewable energy and most especially electric vehicles are fast becoming the order of the day.
The UN says mankind must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to about 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures to stave off the worst-case predictions of scientists. The Summit was part of the run-up to the international climate talks in 2020, which is the next deadline for countries to make significant emissions reduction pledges under the 2015 global warming deal.
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.
The president of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina joined continental leaders in Niger for an African Union summit which saw the official launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement – the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization.
The agreement, ratified in April, will cover a market of 1.2 billion people and an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union.
The Bank has been central in shaping the AfCFTA agreement, setting its strategy and format and approving a $4.8 million grant to the AU for the establishing of the Secretariat and to accelerate its roll out. Nigeria made history at the summit by becoming the 54th African country to sign up.
Commending all the parties involved for bringing this historic agreement to fruition, President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou said: “The time has come to translate words into actions. The continent has waited for far too long, and we are glad this historic moment for the people of Africa is being witnessed in Niger.”
His comments were echoed by AU President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and AU Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat who both stressed the need to celebrate the strides the continent has made.
“An old dream has come true. The founding fathers must be proud,” said Faki.
Whilst in Niamey, Adesina also participated in a high-level panel on combatting child marriage, organized on the sidelines of the summit by the First Ladies of West African Economic Community states and Niger’s first lady Dr. Lala Malika Mahamadou Issoufou.
The panel themed: Combatting child marriage and promoting girls’ education and retention in schools, heard testimonies from young girls as well as from Niger’s traditional chiefs, who committed to support the recommendations of the meeting.
“It is totally unacceptable that in Africa some people would block the future of girls. Fundamentally, we have to protect girls, help them achieve and perform.” Adesina said.
Highlighting the need to urgently address “this plague which jeopardizes the future of girls in Africa,” Adesina urged participants to prioritize the inclusion of women. “Women are the backbone of the African economy and of the African communities,” Adesina stated.
President Issoufou also reaffirmed his government’s commitment to supporting the First ladies.
“Keeping girls in school is one of the best ways to end child marriage. Like men, an educated girl will contribute to her community’s transformation,” the President said.
Rounding off the conversation Niger’s First Lady described the issue as a “critical priority.”
“It is not just a West Africa issue, but an issue for the entire region. So all of us must come together – public, non-governmental institutions, religious leaders, communities, families, and schools – for a sustained multi-stakeholder approach to combat early marriage and promote girls’ education,” Malika Mahamadou Issoufou concluded.
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.
