AfDB at 60: Time to reclaim the zeal of its visionary reformers
On its 60th anniversary, the African Development Bank (AfDB) stands on the foundations laid by every one of its past presidents. History shows three stewards in particular guided the institution through decisive turning points: Babacar Ndiaye, Omar Kabbaj and Donald Kaberuka. Their combined reforms offer a blueprint for the next generation. With today's crises 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 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 2008‑2009. 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 (R53.53-trillion) continental economy that still falls short on infrastructure, climate resilience and industrial diversification.
Ndiaye (president, 1985-1995) 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 $23.3bn (R415.2bn) and brought newly admitted non‑regional shareholders behind a common agenda. He went on to champion pan‑African 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.
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