So many questions from the community on the issue of the United States rejecting the conclusion of the Ethics Committee on allegations against the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina. Samples: “Why is the United States interested in what is happening in African Development Bank?”, “Wetin concern Trump in Africa’s Bank”, “Can you explain why they should even listen to the United States – this is our bank”.
My general response to save time: The African Development Bank is not just owned by Africans and African countries. We should not be confused because the name has “Africa”. The U.S. became a member of the African Development Fund in 1976 and that of the African Development Bank in 1983. If you go to AfDB, they have nationals from Japan, Europe, etc and most are watching their investments; they call them representatives from their countries.
More so, what the U.S. is doing is simple: fiduciary responsibility of the American taxpayers money. If they invested in this AfDB, they should pay attention to what goes in there.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
In 2009, I attended the African Union Congress. There were some activists protesting that Africa should buy out the UK, Japan and U.S. so that the bank could be wholly-African. That time the UK was holding around 14%, Japan 5.4% and U.S. 6.5%. I do expect the shareholding to have changed; Nigeria holds about 9% – the largest of any African country. In that Congress, one man asked the activists to come back with cash to pay off the Europeans, Japanese and Americans!
The United States is one of the Group of seven nations holding 28 per cent investment grade equity in AfDB.
The others include Germany and Japan. About 41 per cent of their Group’s shareholding is held by non-regionals and multilateral development finance institutions.
The AfDB Group comprises three entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF).
Largely, this matter is very complicated. Even though the U.S. has a right to protect its investments and asks questions, the issues are very trivial that the basis of U.S. strategic interests cannot be those allegations (read U.S. letter); you can read Adesina’s responses here. These allegations are mundane; the Board can handle them, and communicate to its shareholders. They are not things, in my opinion, for an external counsel to investigate. President Trump does what Mr. Adesina is accused daily in Washington DC! Adesina does not have his daughter and son-in-law working in his office or vacationing in his hotels!
This is my conclusion: the U.S. is asking for a change of leadership in AfDB. It is as simple as that. Unfortunately, Adesina has arrived at the same conclusion himself. And that is the real problem: if the U.S. concludes that a bank is corrupt, it can fine or at extreme cut it out of the financial system until it cleans itself. That is why what the U.S.is saying is more important than what the African leaders (about 50 of them) have to say. Call it an asymmetric power play.
Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB President, Responds To The Allegations
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
When we tell some here to invest in start-ups, fund businesses with potential to scale, they see it as joke, or sort of helping someone to put food on his/her table; well, it goes far beyond that.
We shout ‘our own’, ‘leave us alone’, ‘it’s an internal problem’; yet we do not want to stand on our feet, I understand we produce more comedians than thinkers and business leaders anyway.
The US cannot leave you alone, in fact it’s irresponsible on their part to leave you alone, and if you think 6.5% is a small holding, then try buying it off.
People will be looking for capital to fund their businesses here, the locals won’t be interested, they dismiss you or doubt your capability, then you go outside and source fund, subsequently your benefactors demand that you relocate or restructure the business one way or the other, and then the very people who never showed interest now care? I don’t understand Africans.
We see making money as means of escaping poverty and guaranteeing well being, others see it as a tool to wield power and influence across many geographical boundaries.
Yesterday, in the middle of the pandemic, the global attention was shifted to somewhere in Florida, waiting to witness history, until weather intervened…
This is very true.
“I understand that we produce more comedians than thinkers and business leaders”.
Comedy seems to be the easy way out.
Comedy requires a whole lot of thinking if you’re to be any good at it.
I believe we need to invest in ourselves and strategically take that uphill walk required to bring us to a better place.
Your comments are impressive.
Your conclusion is unfortunately, correct. It’s a shame because the AfDB under Dr. Adesina has really done a lot to drive an #Africafirst (if I may call it that) narrative and agenda. It would be disappointing to see the AfDB go back to the less-than-impressive lacklustre years pre-Adesina.