Sidi Ould Tah elected AfDB president as Akinwumi Adesina bows out
Tah was elected on Thursday at the bank’s annual meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, according to a statement from the AfDB.
The new president will succeed Akinwumi Adesina, a Nigerian economist who led the AfDB for 10 years following his election in 2015.
The development bank said Tah will assume office as its 9th president on September 1, 2025.
According to the statement, 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 Niale Kaba, Minister of Planning and Development for Côte d’Ivoire, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Bank Group,” the statement reads.
“The winning candidate is required to obtain at least 50.01 percent of both the regional and non-regional votes.”
The AfDB said the other candidates in the election were Amadou Hott (Senegal), Samuel Maimbo (Zambia), Mahamat Abbas Tolli (Chad), and Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala (South Africa).
The institution said the board of governors steering committee received and approved a total of five candidates by the closing date of January 31, adding that the list of candidates was officially announced on February 21.
Tah, a Mauritanian national, brings over 35 years of experience in African and international finance, the bank said.
“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,” the AfDB said.
“Tah was also a former minister of economic affairs and finance of Mauritania.”
The organisation said he has held senior roles in multilateral institutions and has led crisis response, financial reform, and innovative resource mobilisation for Africa, including the establishment of BADEA’s $1 billion callable capital programme for African multilateral development banks (MDBs).
