Latest news with #Mauritania
Arab News
2 hours ago
- General
- Arab News
Mauritanian president arrives in Madinah
MADINAH: President of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Ghazouani arrived in Madinah on Saturday to visit and pray at the Prophet's Mosque. Ghazouani was received at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport by Abdul Mohsen bin Nayef bin Hamid, undersecretary of Madinah; the director of the Royal Protocol Office in the region Ibrahim bin Abdullah Barri; and a number of other officials, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Malki met Mohamed Ali Randhawa, the chairman of Pakistan's Capital Development Authority in Islamabad on Saturday. They discussed issues of common interest, according to a post made by the ambassador on X.
The Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- The Herald
SA's Tshabalala loses AfDB presidency to Mauritanian
His win means the presidency of the bank will again stay between West and North Africa. Southern Africa had fielded two candidates, Tshabalala and Zambian economist Samuel Maimbo. This caused a rift within the regional body Sadc, which publicly endorsed the Zambian, but SA refused to back down. Tah previously served as director-general for the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa. He also served as an expert at the Mauritanian Bank for Development and Commerce between 1984 and 1986, then as a financial analyst at the Food Security Commission in 1986. He also worked as a financial analyst at the Khartoum-based Arab Authority for Agriculture, Investment and Development between 1996 and 1999. Thereafter, he served as investment promotion officer and then technical assistant to the president of the Islamic Development Bank. He was the adviser to Mauritania's president and prime minister, respectively, in 2006 and 2008. In 2008, he was nominated and appointed as Mauritanian minister of economy and finance. Tshabalala joined AfDB in 2018 after she was appointed as vice president of finance and CFO. She previously served as a finance manager at Standard Bank Group and as group treasurer at Transnet. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana previously commended Tshabalala for her contribution and commitment to achieving the AfDB's vital goal of increasing investment in the continent. TimesLIVE
Zawya
2 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Sidi Ould Tah elected ninth president of the African Development Bank Group
Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania was today elected President of the African Development Bank Group ( at the Bank's Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Tah was elected by the Bank's Board of Governors, comprising Finance and Economy Ministers or Central Bank Governors of the Bank Group's 81 regional and non-regional member countries. The board is the highest decision-making authority for the Bank Group. The results were announced by Nialé Kaba, Minister of Planning and Development for Côte d'Ivoire, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Bank Group. Addressing the Bank Group's governors ( and the media shortly after the announcement, Tah said, 'Let's go to work now, I'm ready!' The winning candidate is required to obtain at least 50.01% of both the regional and non-regional votes ( Tah brings over 35 years of experience in African and international finance. He served as president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) for 10 years from 2015, where he led a full transformation that quadrupled the Bank's balance sheet, secured a AAA rating, and positioned it among the top-rated development banks focused on Africa. A former Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance of Mauritania, Tah has held senior roles in multilateral institutions and has led crisis response, financial reform, and innovative resource mobilization for Africa. The Board of Governors Steering Committee received and approved a total of five candidates by the closing date of 31 January 2025. The list of candidates was officially announced on 21 February 2025. The other candidates in the election were: Amadou Hott (Senegal) Samuel Maimbo (Zambia) Mahamat Abbas Tolli (Chad) Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala (South Africa) Tah will assume office on 1 September 2025, for a five-year term, following the end of the second mandate of current President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. The African Development Bank's past heads since its inception in 1964 are: Mamoun Beheiry (Sudan), 1964-1970 Abdelwahab Labidi (Tunisia), 1970-1976 Kwame Donkor Fordwor (Ghana), 1976-1980 Willa Mung'Omba (Zambia), 1980-1985 Babacar N'diaye (Senegal), 1985-1995 Omar Kabbaj (Morocco), 1995-2005 Donald Kaberuka (Rwanda), 2005-2015 Dr. Akinwumi Adesina (Nigeria), 2015-2025. The election ( of a new president comes at a crucial time in the Bank Group's six decades of existence. Africa has remained resilient despite climate shocks, economic disruption, and a shifting geopolitical landscape, but needs to move faster or risk falling behind on delivering on the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals, summed up in the Bank Group's High 5's. The 2025 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group are taking place from May 26 to 30 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire under the theme 'Making Africa's Capital Work Better for Africa's Development.' The African Development Bank Group comprises three entities: the African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund. Its shareholder countries include 54 African countries or regional member countries, and 27 non-African countries or non-regional member countries. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
African Development Bank elects top economist as president to face funding challenges
The African Development Bank elected Mauritanian economist Sidi Ould Tah as its next president on Thursday to steer the region's top development finance institution through difficult times amid funding cuts from the U.S. and other key partners. Tah, 60, was elected by the bank's board of governors, which includes finance ministers and central bank governors from its 81 regional and non-regional member countries. He will take over on Sept. 1 for a five-year term, succeeding Nigeria's Akinwumi Adesina, who is stepping down after two terms. The election took three rounds of voting to decide between the five candidates in the contest. Tah won with 76.18% of the vote, ahead of Zambia's Samuel Maimbo (with 20.26%), who is a vice-president of the World Bank, and former Senegalese economy minister Amadou Hott (3.55%). The vote came during the bank's annual meetings in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where economic headwinds — from debt distress to climate shocks — have dominated discussions. Observers see Tah's leadership as pivotal in steering the institution through a period of rising pressure on African economies and tightening global development finance. 'The AfDB's role is now more critical than ever,' said Bismark Rewane, an economist and chief executive of Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Co. He called for 'African resilience" at a time when 'no one is going to pick the chestnut out of the fire' for African countries. "Africa has to look more inwards and be innovative in its thinking to thrive,' Rewane said. Since 2015, Tah has been managing the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, based in Khartoum, Sudan. He has formerly held senior government roles in Mauritania, including minister of agriculture and minister of economy and rural development, and was an economic advisor to the president. —-
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Sidi Ould Tah named African Development Bank president
The African Development Bank has chosen the Mauritanian economist Sidi Ould Tah as its president-elect after three rounds of voting on Thursday afternoon. The election took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at the end of the annual meeting of the continent's biggest multilateral lender. Tah, former head of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea), beat his closest challenger, Samuel Maimbo, of Zambia, a vice-president of the World Bank, to emerge as successor to the incumbent Akinwunmi Adesina, who completes his second five-year term in September. Of the five candidates running, four men and a woman, Tah secured 76% of the total vote. Of the remaining votes, Maimbo won 20%, with the former Senegalese economy minister Amadou Hott gaining 3.5%. The president-elect will be the ninth chief of the 60-year-old development finance institution, which boasts a broad ownership structure: 54 African countries are shareholders, as are G7 nations, including the US and Japan. Nigeria is its single biggest shareholder. The bank is responsible for backing several large-scale infrastructure developments within the continent, in part using resources from the African Development Fund (ADF). International partners replenish the ADF's resources every three years, with the next round of funding due to begin this November. However, with the Trump administration committed to cutting US funding to the AfDB by $555m (£411m) to focus on domestic matters, the bank will have to find creative ways of doing more with less or finding new donors. Adesina has said the current capital of the AfDB has grown to $318bn. Tah has pledged to collaborate more with Gulf states around infrastructure development.
