‘A Day Of Joy’: African Development Bank Group Celebrates 60th Anniversary

Akinwumi Adesina (left) speaking at the AfDB 60th anniversary celebration in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has celebrated the 60th anniversary of its creation.

AfDB is Africa’s premier multilateral development institution. It currently has over 2000 employees spread across Africa.

The Bank has funded an estimated 6,575 projects on the African continent since it was established on September 10, 1964.

The first of African Development Bank funded projects were implemented in Kenya, and Sierra Leone.

Over the last 60 years, AfDB’s capital has grown from $250 million to $318 billion, according to its President, Akinwumi Adesina.

The idea to form the African Development Bank was initiated in 1958 by then President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, President William Tubman of Liberia, and President Sekou Toure of Guinea.

In a speech delivered in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, Dr. Adesina described the AfDB 60th anniversary celebration as a “day of joy”.

He lauded the AfDB host nation’s President, Alassan Ouattara as “a pillar of extraordinary support.”

Dr. Adesina recounted how in 2019, President Ouattara helped AfDB to secure a general capital increase of $115 billion – the largest increase in the Bank’s history, adding that the Bank’s total capital rose to $318 billion earlier this May, in another show of shareholder support.

According to him, “This provides the firepower to do more for Africa. We are today a bigger, bolder and better Bank better positioned to meet Africa’s future needs and challenges, to fast-track Africa’s development.”

He paid special tribute to the Bank’s achievements since its inception in Abidjan in 1964, celebrating how the Bank has supported 6,575 projects across the continent and how in the last 10 years alone it has invested $77 billion across 3,000 projects to become Africa’s most trusted development partner.