CUPP Lauds Akinwumi Adesina’s Achievements as AfDB President

•Urges Nigeria to give him country’s highest honour

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has heaped generous accolades on the outgoing President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who is rounding off his second tenure in that capacity.

In a press release in Abuja signed by the coalition’s national Publicity Secretary, Mark Adebayo,  CUPP said Adesina’s time at the bank has been “revolutionary and transformational”, stressing that he helped in improving the effectiveness of the AfDB.

According to the group, Adesina has represented Nigeria and Africa well on the global stage and has put the bank on the  global stage of competitiveness and institutional efficiency.

Under Adesina’s presidency, it stated that ‘Africa 50’ was set up, which became a first rate private equity infrastructure investment platform that has portfolio companies now worth over $7 billion.

“His presidency powered multi-level institutional support for Africa, including the African Union (AU), Africa Centre for Disease Control (ACDC), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA, etc, which ran into over hundreds of millions of dollars.

“ Over $225 billion in investment interests in Africa has been mobilised by African Investment Forum launched in 2018,  among other unprecedented success stories.

“Dr. Akinwumi Adesina’s transformational leadership has in the last 10 years placed the AfDB on the zenith of global leadership in financial innovations. The application of ‘synthetic securitization’ by the bank in 2015, shortly after Adesina took over as president was unprecedented as it was the first multilateral development bank in the world to execute such. He led AfDB to lead globally in financial innovation and strategic interventions .

“The AfDB became the number one sought-after financial institution globally with G7 and G20 in active partnership with the bank. This is partly due to the fact that throughout Adesina’s 10-year leadership, AfDB maintained stellar AAA-credit ratings,” CUPP added.

According to the group, this was achieved despite the ravaging scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic that humbled and crippled many financial institutions worldwide. AfDB under Adesina, CUPP maintained, accrued its highest income in over 60 years of its existence.

“For these sterling performances, Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina deserves to be celebrated by all Nigerians as a good Ambassador of our dear nation, Nigeria. We equally call on the federal government of Nigeria to bestow him with the country’s highest honour.

“If a foreign country like Kenya could honour him with that country’s highest honor, his home country should emulate that great gesture and do the needful. Let us celebrate our best materials when they are still alive. We salute Dr. Akinwumi Adesina for his great and transparent leadership,  we congratulate Nigeria for giving Africa its very best,” CUPP added.