AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina Won African Man of the Year Award

African Development Bank President Dr Akinwumi Adesina has been named 2022 Man of the Year (Africa). 

Several encomiums poured in as African Development Bank President Dr Akinwumi Adesina was named African 2022 Man of the Year. The award which was organised by EMY Africa Magazine recognised outstanding African men for their visionary leadership.

Dr Akinwumi Adesina was recognised for his visionary leadership as the president of the African Development Bank Group. He was also recognised for his outstanding contribution to Africa during his period as agriculture minister in Nigeria.

The award ceremony which was hosted in Accra, Ghana witnessed the presence of important personalities in Ghana and beyond. 

Presenting the award, the UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Charles Abani stated that Akinwumi Adesina has exemplified himself with his contribution to people, the African agricultural value chain and the African society at large. 

It will be recalled that Akinwumi Adesina was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture from 2011 to 2015. During his time as minister, he turned the agricultural sector around with several innovations. 

He also ended Nigeria’s age-long corruption in the fertiliser sector by developing and implementing an innovative electronic wallet system, which directly provided farmers with subsidized farm inputs at scale using their mobile phones. Within four years, the mobile wallet system reached more than 15 million farmers scattered across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. 

As AfDB President, Adesina achieved the highest capital increase since the establishment of the bank in 1964. 

In 2019, all stakeholders from 80  member countries raised the general capital from $93 billion to a historic $208 billion. 

AfDB under Adesina’s leadership also played a major responsive role to the Covid-19 pandemic. The bank launched a landmark $3 billion Covid-19 Social Bond which was made available to African countries. The continental bank also issued a Crisis Response Facility of up to $10 billion.

Similarly, AfDB approved $1.5 billion Food Facility to tackle the global food crisis sparked by the Russian-Ukraine conflict. 

The funds will help 20 million African farmers to produce an extra 38 million metric tons of food to address the growing fears of starvation and food insecurity on the continent.