African Development Bank at 60: Time to reclaim the zeal of its visionary reformers
The African Development Bank's shareholders must decide whether the mandate will expand to crowd in private finance, derisk green investment and underwriter regional public goods, or retreat to classical project lending.
At its 60th anniversary, the African Development Bank (AfDB) stands on foundations laid by every one of its past presidents. But history shows that three stewards in particular guided the institution through decisive turningpoints: Babacar Ndiaye, Omar Kabbaj and Donald Kaberuka. Their combined reforms offer a blueprint for the next generation. With today's crisis mounting, from shrinking aid to rising debt, that spirit of decisive reinvention must return.
The leadership contest we are witnessing now happens as the continent once again faces tightening liquidity, dwindling concessional resources and escalating debt service costs. These pressures mirror earlier shocks: the post Cold War aid squeeze of the early 1990s, the commodity price slump of 1998-2002 and the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Each episode forced Africa's premier development institution to redefine its mandate, strengthen its balance sheet and, crucially, protect its credit standing. Those lessons remain highly relevant as the bank prepares for its next resource mobilisation and as African policymakers debate how the institution can best serve a $3 trillion continental economy that still falls short on infrastructure, climate resilience and industrial diversification.
The late Babacar Ndiaye (president, 1985-95) led the bank through one of its most consequential transformations. A consummate Senegalese technocrat and diplomat, Ndiaye secured the 1987 General Capital Increase that tripled ordinary resources to $23.3 billion and brought newly admitted nonregional shareholders behind a common agenda. He went on to champion panAfrican institutions that outlived his mandate, Afreximbank, Shelter Afrique and Africa Re, enlarging the bank's footprint in trade finance, housing and risk transfer. His ability to persuade Eritrea and Ethiopia, Namibia and South Africa to subscribe simultaneously attested to his diplomatic reach.
Taking office amid that loss of investor confidence, Moroccan economist Omar Kabbaj embarked on a comprehensive modernisation. He restored the bank's AAA rating, reestablished the stalled African Development Fund (ADF) replenishment cycle and rebuilt capital adequacy. Internally, he introduced rigorous financial controls, procurement guidelines and a competitive remuneration policy that attracted and retained talent. Kabbaj also created the Administrative Tribunal, giving staff formal recourse for employment disputes.
Those governance upgrades were not an implicit criticism of Ndiaye; rather, they extended his commitment to durable institutions. By the end of Kabbaj's decade, the bank's balance sheet was stronger, its internal processes codified and its borrowing costs once again the envy of peer multilaterals.
Donald Kaberuka, who had already overseen Rwanda's postgenocide recovery, confronted the global financial crisis with equal determination. In 2009 he launched a $1.5 billion Emergency Liquidity Facility, led the temporary relocation to Tunis and orchestrated the bank's orderly return to Abidjan in 2014, while preserving the AAA status earned under Kabbaj.
Kaberuka's hallmark, however, was institutional robustness. He strengthened the Independent Evaluation Department, introduced a formal sanctions regime and, for the first time, created an Investigation & Anti-corruption Office. Recognising the infrastructure gap that curbed Africa's growth, he also catalysed Africa 50, a project development and financing platform that today mobilises nonsovereign capital alongside the bank's own resources.
The achievements of Ndiaye, Kabbaj and Kaberuka illustrate an evolving but consistent mandate: to finance transformative, continentwide development while safeguarding the bank's financial integrity. Yet Africa's needs have outpaced traditional concessional windows. The climate transition alone could require $250 billion annually by 2030; the digitalisation agenda and the AfCFTA will demand billions more in risk capital and knowledge services.
The bank's shareholders, African and non-African alike, must therefore decide whether the mandate will expand to crowd in private finance, derisk green investment and underwriter regional public goods, or whether it will retreat to classical project lending. Reasoning with them on the basis of facts, Africa can argue that without a financially solid, policy innovative AfDB, neither ambition is attainable. A strong capital base, disciplined governance and AAA status are preconditions for leveraging external markets at scale.
But the adversity ahead is more intense than any the bank has faced. A planet that is warming faster than anticipated is fuelling droughts in the Sahel, cyclones on the Mozambican coast and devastating floods from Libya to KwaZulu‑Natal; harvest failures and disrupted supply chains are driving a surge in food insecurity across more than 20 African countries.
Global financial volatility, higher interest rates and fractured trade corridors are squeezing the very sovereign borrowers the AfDB exists to serve and, by extension, testing the bank's own funding model. Honouring the transformational legacy of past reformers, therefore, is not mere nostalgia; it is the essential starting point for equipping the institution to withstand the next wave of systemic shocks.
It requires political acumen, financial discipline and the courage to act at moments of uncertainty. It requires belief in African institutions as engines of transformation, not just conduits for aid. The road ahead for Africa is not easy, but it is not uncharted. An AfDB with that agility is the bank we want to see going forward, and we are confident it is the type of institution our shareholders and development partners will be proud to champion.
Obi Ezekwesili is a former minister and former vice-president for Africa at the World Bank.
Kalidou Gadio, of DLA Piper, is a former legal counsel of the AfDB.
Agnes Kalibata is the former president of AGRA.
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