debt drive

AfDB’s President Akinwumi Adesina is a man in a hurry

By Estelle Maussion
Posted on Monday, 6 June 2022 09:09

Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, on 10 November 2021 in Paris. Damien Grenon for JA

Omnipresent at the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings, Akinwumi Adesina, head of the pan-African institution, has been pushing for faster action on debt. At the cost of ruffling some shareholder feathers.

Tuesday, 24 May 2022. The Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Ghana. 6:30pm on the second day of the Annual Meetings of the AfDB. Following an opening ceremony, a high-level lunch and the first meeting of the Board of Governors, Adesina arrived in the hotel lobby at a run.

READ MORE AfDB lobbies US for funding boost as Africa struggles with multitude of crises

Behind him, a member of his team, when asked by one of his colleagues if everything was all right, said in a whisper: “We haven’t stopped running.”

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