NIDCOM Boss Lauds Adesina On His Re-election As AfDB President
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 runs another five-year
term as the 9th President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Unit of NIDCOM, the NIDCOM Boss describes the re-election of Akinwunmi
Adesina President of the Continental Institution as the right thing to
do given his plethora of achievements stressing that many Nigerians are
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.
