By : Abdelmonem Fawzi
We are badly in need of to improving living conditions on our continent and achieving economic development and social progress.
To this end, our main challenge is to reduce poverty. Combating poverty is at the heart of the continent’s efforts to attain sustainable economic growth.
That is what the African Development Bank is all about. Those aims are at the core of the bank’s priority actions and projects.
The African Development Bank Group has recently concluded five days of annual meetings in Accra, Ghana. The next annual meetings will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, next year.
The bank’s president, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, told delegates at the closing ceremony that discussions would continue to leverage the equity of the African Development Fund (ADF) on international capital markets, thus allowing for much larger fundraising.
“With the ADF, we have created a powerful institution, the only one based in Africa that exclusively finances Africa’s development,” Adesina said.
He added: “The fund arriving on the financial market with its $25 billion will not worsen Africa’s debt.”
Delegates unanimously adopted what they called the ‘Accra Declaration’, which captured decisions reached by the Bank Group’s governors during the meetings.
The new executive bureau of the Board of Governors was also unveiled. It is led by Tarek Amer, the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt who is also the new chairman of the Bank Group’s Board of Governors.
Brazil assumes the position of 1st Vice-President and Uganda as 2nd Vice-President.
This year’s meetings bore the special stamp of a continent recovering from the socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
They were the first annual meetings held in person in the last few years, after the African Development Bank took strong precautionary measures to contain the disastrous effects of the pandemic.
During that period, the Bank Group established its Covid-19 Response Fund to help the continent fight the pandemic and embark on economic recovery.
The governors asserted the continued relevance of the High 5 Priorities —Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Integrate Africa, Industrialize Africa and improve the quality of life of the people in Africa — as key pillars of the Bank Group’s strategic outlook for the next 10 years (2023 – 2032) to build “a prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”.
Delegates reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the Bank’s financial power and resources to enable a scale-up that will multiply and raise the level of achievements.
Adesina cited Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, saying: “We must accelerate the process of moving from a billion to a trillion, and the Bank must become the dominant financial institution in Africa to accelerate development”.
The Bank Group’s chief reiterated his plea for the African Development Bank to be the vehicle for the continent’s IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
He said the institution’s track record should also be a strong argument in its favour as it is “the only Triple-A African institution and ranked the fourth most transparent and best multilateral financial institution in the world.”
Independent reviews, he said, showed that the Bank’s governance instruments were up to international standards.
The Bank Group’s president assured board members that he had heard their recommendations.
“We will continue to improve,” he said. “All recommendations would be implemented.”
Adesina said all 81 member countries were “dedicated and loyal shareholders” who had come to express confidence in the work of the bank by their presence.
Ghanaian Finance Minister, Kenneth Ofori-Atta, spoke of the privilege he enjoyed of having chaired the Board of Governors for two years.
“It is a difficult time,” he said. “We face rising prices and debt.”
He noted that 1.3 billion Africans need innovative solutions.
The minister also called for having the courage to move forward with the climate change framework and support countries in climate strategies for green and inclusive growth.
New Board of Governors Chairman, Amer, invited participants to the global climate summit, COP27, to be organized by Egypt in Sharm el-Sheikh later this year in a context where Africa is disproportionately affected by global warming.
He reaffirmed Egypt’s support to the Bank.
“The bank is an institution that stands out,” he said. “Our expectations are high, and we know how much the continent has been hit by Covid-19.”
He noted that the best way to benefit from Special Drawing Rights is to use the bank’s channel.
In his remarks, Ghanaian vice-president, Mahamudu Bawumia, said the African Development Bank’s performance had brought to reality the vision of the founding fathers.
He added that the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war would weigh heavily on the growth of African economies.
Bawumia hoped the strategy the African Development Bank Group would adopt for 2023-2032 would also be a means of achieving the objectives defined by the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
“I am convinced that the bank had the leadership to make the institution’s High 5s come to fruition,” Bawumia said. “I am confident that the Accra Declaration would be fully implemented.”
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