Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – 27 May 2025
Your Excellency Mr. Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.
Your Excellency Mr. Azali Assoumani, President of the Union of Comoros
Your Excellency Mr. John Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana.
Your Excellency Dr. Philip Isdor Mpango, Vice President, United Republic of Tanzania, representing Her Excellency Ms. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania
Your Excellency Mr. Ndaba Nkosinathi Gaolathe, Vice President of the Republic of Botswana
Your Excellency Mr. Ali Mahaman Lamine, Prime Minister of the Republic of Niger
Your Excellency Mr. Joaquim Chissano, former President of the Republic of Mozambique
Honorable Madame Kandia Camara, President of the Senate of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire,
Honorable Monsieur Adama Bictogo, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire,
Honourable Madam Nialé Kaba, Minister of Economy, Planning and Development of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, and Chairperson of the Boards of Governors of the African Development Bank Group,
Honourable Governors,
Your Excellencies, Heads of Regional Economic Communities and Financial Institutions
Your Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic Missions
Heads of International Institutions and Development Partners
Dear Executive Directors of the African Development Bank Group
Dear Senior Management and Staff of the African Development Bank Group
Representatives of Media Houses
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
And to my dear and beautiful wife, Grace!
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2025 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group.
I wish to thank you Your Excellency President Alassane Ouattara, my dear big brother and host, for being here today. I also thank all the Heads of State, the Presidents, as well as their representatives, who do us the honour of being present as well.
I am extremely grateful to each of you, Your Excellencies, for finding time to be here, and for your laudable confidence and personal support to me over the past ten years as President of the African Development Bank Group.
This will be my last and final Annual Meetings as President of the African Development Bank Group.
It is a special moment to reflect on the 10-year journey of my Presidency and to give a public account of the stewardship you have collectively entrusted to my care.
So, I have much to say today, so please excuse me as I will take a bit of time. But you can be sure I will not be speaking as President next year.
So, you can deduct from my time next year!
[Laugh. Pause]
I wish to start first by saying thank you.
Thank you for electing me as President of the African Development Bank on May 28th, 2015 right here in Abidjan, in this very same hall.
Thank you for re-electing me in 2020 to a second 5-year term, with a historic 100% of the votes of all 81 regional and non-regional shareholder countries, the first ever such in the history of the African Development Bank.
As I have always said, being President of the African Development Bank for me, is not a job; it is a mission. Nothing can be greater than to be given the responsibility, resources, mandate, support and the platform to help transform Africa, the continent of my birth.
Thank you to you, African Heads of State and Government, for your incredible support. I made it the hallmark of my Presidency to carefully listen to and understand the needs of your countries and to do all possible, within the available resources of the Bank, to support your economic and development ambitions.
Thank you to the people of Africa who daily are our focus. As I said to my staff, the most important part of the African Development Bank is the “development” ’part. We must fast track Africa’s development.
I am proud that over the past 10 years, the African Development Bank has been an accelerator of Africa’s development.
The High 5s of the Bank, to light up and power Africa, feed Africa, industrialize Africa, integrate Africa and improve the quality of life of the people of Africa have been transformational for Africa.
In the past decade, the work of the African Development Bank has impacted the lives of 565 million people.
This includes:
- 28 million people with access to electricity;
- 104 million people with food security;
- 121 million people with access to improved transport;
- 128 million people with access to improved health services;
- 67 million with improved access to information and communication technology;
- 63 million people with access to drinking water;
- 34 million people with access to sanitation.
The Bank accelerated regional integration with massive support for infrastructure to support the African continental free trade area.
Over the ten-year period under my presidency the African Development would have provided a total of $102 billion in support to Africa. This represents 46% of all the financing of the Bank since its establishment in 1964.
The African Development Bank financed over $55 billion in support of infrastructure, from roads, rails, airports, seaports, digital and communications, health, water and sanitation.
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Right here in our host country, almost all the major urban infrastructure you see in Abidjan, were supported by the Bank.
Your Excellency, President Ouattara, I am delighted to let you know that, under my Presidency, the African Development Bank’s financial support to Cote d’Ivoire grew by 500% over the last ten years.
To put this in perspective, the total lending by the African Development Bank to Cote d’Ivoire from 1964 to 2014 (50 years) was EUR 2.3 billion. From 2015, when I was elected to the present, the Bank’s financing for Cote d’Ivoire stands at EUR 3.6 billion, 1.6 times more than what had been approved for Cote d’Ivoire in the previous 50 years.
This includes the now famous Henri Konan Bedie bridge in Abidjan. Also, the Bank, through the Projet de Transport Urbain de la ville d’Abidjan (PTUA) financed the iconic 1,400-meter-long 4th bridge linking Yopougon to Adjame; including 88 kilometers of city highways and 89 intersections.
It includes all the beautiful highways leading to the new Alassane Ouattara Stadium, where Cote d’Ivoire won the 2023 African Cup of Nations!
Your Excellency, President Ouattara, I hope that in addition to delivering for the African Cup of Nations, as a Bank, we have tried for Cote d’Ivoire!
Let me touch on a few other projects pertaining to the countries of the heads of state present here today.
While several can be listed for each African country, time does not allow. Nonetheless, the impact of the African Development Bank Group is tangibly felt all across Africa.
In Tanzania, we are supporting the $3.2 billion standard gauge railway connecting Tanzania to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
We supported the transport corridor that links Addis Ababa to Nairobi and Mombasa which has reduced the time to travel from 3 days to 1 day and expanded trade between both nations by 400%.
The Bank’s Last Mile Connectivity Project in Kenya has helped to increase the number of Kenyans connected to national electricity grid from 2.42 million households in 2014 to 9.7 million households in 2024. This helped the country increase electricity access from 36% to 76% over the same period.
Also, the Lake Turkana wind project in Kenya is the largest operational wind power mill in Africa.
As President Ruto of Kenya said when he conferred me with Kenya’s Highest National Honor, Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart, a great recognition of the work of the African Development Bank: “I am proud of the journey we started together ten years ago; I can see its fruits. Kenyans can feel its benefits.”
Today, the Kazungula bridge connecting Zambia to Malawi and Namibia is expanding regional trade in southern Africa.
Since 1974, the collective dream of the people of Senegal and the Gambia was to have a bridge connecting both countries. That dream was realized by the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund. The impressive Senegambia bridge and the 24-kilometer road leading up to it has cut travel time from two days to less than 10 minutes.
The Port Autonome de Lomé in Togo has been expanded and turned it into a major transit port.
In Comoros, we supported the construction of roads linking the islands.
In Egypt, the Bank supported the Gabal El Asfar, a wastewater treatment plant. It serves 12 million residents. It is now the largest water treatment plant in Africa and is set to serve a total of 17.5 million people by 2040.
The Bank supported the Noor Ouarzazate solar complex in Morocco, which was the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant at the time of its completion.
We launched the Lagos to Abidjan highway corridor for which the African Development Bank is supporting the feasibility studies, and we have mobilized $15 billion in investment interests.
In Nigeria, we are implementing the development of special agro-industrial processing zones in 8 States and the FCT and have mobilized $2.9 billion to support the establishment of these zones in 28 more States of Nigeria.
We have stood by countries that were under sanctions to clear their debt arrears to the Bank, including Somalia and Sudan. Today, thanks to support from the African Development Fund, Somalia is showing recovery and greater resilience.
Thanks to the African Development Fund and the Bank’s Technology for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), Sudan (even in the midst of conflict) is showing remarkable progress towards achieving self-sufficiency in wheat. With our support it achieved 50% self-sufficiency in wheat in 2023 and 85% by 2024.
We are also standing with Zimbabwe to clear its arrears to the Bank and other creditors. As champion of the debt arrears process, working with former president Chissano, we have supported Zimbabwe to make significant progress. I am pleased that the IMF Staff Monitored Program will be concluded this month.
The past ten years were filled with never-before-seen multiple and simultaneous crises, from Covid19 to geopolitical tensions emanating from the Russian war with Ukraine, which in turn triggered a global food crisis. At the same time, a global debt crisis and devastating climate change, posed untold hardships and challenges.
In the midst of these polycrises, the African Development Bank Group stood strong and innovatively supported Africa as it navigated each crisis. Africa survived. Africa was resilient. Africa grew out of them all.
And Africa is still standing … and standing tall.
We stood up for Africa when it mattered most: the Covid 19 crisis. Africa, the continent with the least room to maneuver, was effectively left alone in the midst of the most challenging global crises it had faced in decades: no vaccines, no medicines, no oxygen, no masks, no gloves.
As developed countries got second and third Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, Africa was scrambling for just one shot for its population.
The African Development Bank swung into bold action and launched a $3 billion social bond, the largest ever in world history at the time, to support Africa. We set up a Crisis Response Facility for up to $10 billion for counter cyclical support for countries.
Working away from home, the Bank staff were exemplary, and we delivered more for Africa.
Today, the African Development Bank Group is implementing a $3 billion program for quality health infrastructure, and a $3 billion program for the development of local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in Africa.
We created a new institution, the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, to enable Africa gain access to intellectual property rights, and to protected technologies and processes for manufacturing medicines and vaccines.
We have strongly supported African agriculture and in the process increased Africa’s capacity to feed itself. In ten years, our work allowed 104 million Africans to achieve food security and provided 13 million farmers with access to improved agricultural technologies.
I see the impact of our work in supporting Africa to avoid a looming food crisis predicted when the war of Russia in Ukraine broke out. The news headlines were awash with predictions of food crisis in Africa, as the continent would lose 30 million tons of food (wheat, maize and oilseeds) imported from Russia and Ukraine.
The African Development Bank swung into action with its $1.5 billion emergency food production facility.
Our Feed Africa plan worked!
In just 2 years, our support had allowed 14 million farmers across 30 countries to have access to improved seeds and fertilizers. They produced 44 million tons of food (116% above the target) worth $17.3 billion.
Thanks to the Bank’s support, Ethiopia increased its agricultural areas producing heat tolerant wheat varieties from 5,000 hectares when we started in 2018, to over 650,000 hectares by 2023, allowing the country to become self-sufficient in wheat within four years.
The landmark Feed Africa Summit, which was held in Dakar, brought together over 30 Heads of State and Government, who signed the Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts to accelerate food production and food sovereignty in their countries, which was approved unanimously by the African Union. We mobilized $72 billion globally for Africa’s food security.
The inspiration of the Feed Africa Summit informed our next bold action to achieve universal access to electricity in Africa.
To fast-track access to electricity, the African Development Bank and the World Bank jointly launched the Mission 300 in Dar Es Salaam, to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030.
At the Africa Energy Summit in January this year, we organized, hosted and co-chaired along with Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan, a historic gathering of over 48 African countries, where leaders unanimously endorsed the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Energy Access, with the full support of the African Union. The Declaration marks an unprecedented continental commitment to accelerate energy access through coordinated national actions, regional interconnections, and enhanced investment in renewables and grid expansion.
In all, we mobilized $55 billion in support of these national energy compacts.
Also, we advanced on providing universal access to clean cooking to women in Africa with a successful Africa Clean Cooking Summit in Paris, co-chaired with President Samia Suluhu Hassan, that mobilized $4 billion for clean cooking.
The African Development Bank launched the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), supported by the G7, to mobilize $10 billion for climate resilient infrastructure in Africa.
We strongly supported the youth and women. The Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) approved $2.5 billion in support of over 24,000 women-owned businesses in Africa; expanding access of women businesses to finance through 185 financial institutions in 44 countries.
In support of the youth, and to help unleash their potential, the Bank launched Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks, which will expand access to finance to create youth-based wealth across Africa.
We expanded the voice and participation of civil society in Bank projects and instituted a civil society forum each year to interact and engage more transparently. Today, rather than being adversaries we are partners.
We significantly strengthened the financial architecture in Africa.
Thanks to our African Development Fund donors, we raised $8.9 billion for ADF16, the largest ever in the history of the Fund since 1973. We innovated and developed a new financial framework that will allow the ADF to mobilize $27 billion from global capital markets.
The shareholders of the Bank showed extraordinary support and confidence in our leadership and management of the Bank.
When I was first elected President of the Bank in 2015 the capital of the Bank stood at $93 billion. From 2015 to 2025, we have grown the Bank’s capital from $93 billion to $318 billion.
We put the expanded capital into remarkable use with unprecedented financial support to all the African countries.
For perspectives, let me explain.
Since the establishment of the African Development Bank in 1964 until 2014, it’s total approvals of were $118 billion. However, in the past ten years alone under my Presidency our total approvals were $102 billion, representing 46% of all approvals in the history of the African Development Bank Group.
We have also ramped up our disbursements. The total disbursements of the Bank Group in the past ten years alone, at $59 billion, represents almost half of all disbursements in the history of the African Bank Group.
These are not just numbers. Thanks to your collective support, this represents a new dynamism, scale and transformative impact of the African Development Bank Group, than at any point in its history.
We provided significant financial support to African financial institutions, from commercial banks to regional development financial institutions, to multilateral development finance institutions, boosting their capital bases.
Under my presidency, we set up and built Africa50 from scratch to what it is today, a first-rate private equity infrastructure investment platform with portfolio companies worth over $7 billion.
We worked very closely with and strongly supported the African Union. This includes the provision of $11.5 million in institutional support, over $17 million to the African Continental Free Trade Area, and over $27 million to the African Centre for Disease Control.
The African Investment Forum, launched by the Bank and its partners in 2018 has since mobilized $225 billion in investment interests in Africa, across several projects.
The African Development Bank has strongly supported several African countries in tackling the effects of climate change. The African Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAA-P), with financing commitments of $25 billion from the Bank, and in partnership with the Global Centre for Adaptation, is today the largest climate adaptation program in the world.
Over the last 10 years, the African Development Bank Group has become a global leader in financial innovations that have enabled us to stretch our balance sheets and deliver exceptional impact. The Bank led globally with the use of synthetic securitization in 2015, becoming the first multilateral development bank in the world to do so.
The African Development Bank also launched a $750 million hybrid capital on the global capital market in 2024, becoming the first multilateral financial institution in the world to do so, and opened up a new asset class for investors globally.
The African Development Bank spearheaded (together with the Inter-American Development Bank) the framework to allow the re-channeling of the IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to multilateral development banks, which we can leverage by 4–8 times, to provide much needed concessional financing at scale.
The image, respect and global confidence in the Bank have soared, through our active and unprecedented participation in the summit meetings of G7 and G20.
With your backing, as President, along with colleagues, have amplified the voice and needs of Africa at the highest levels globally.
As my mandate as President of the Bank draws to a close, I am extremely proud of the work we have done and the incredible impact the Bank has had on the daily lives of millions of Africans. This has been a collaborative effort that we can all take great pride in.
We maintained the stellar AAA-credit ratings of the Bank for 10 years in a row with all three global credit ratings agencies (Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s) even during turbulent periods of Covid19 and multiple challenges confronting several shareholder countries.
The independent review of the governance systems of the African Development Bank by our Governors in 2020 was completed two months ago. The review showed that the African Development Bank is very well governed, respects the independence of its oversight organs and is at par with all its peers globally.
In view of all that transpired in 2020, I feel vindicated and enormously happy. I am exceptionally proud of the African Development Bank Group that I lead.
We developed a new institution, the African Financial Stability Mechanism, unanimously approved by the African Union, to support Africa to refinance its debt on global capital markets, reduce contagion effects of economic shocks, and be Africa’s first financial safety net.
The African Development Bank is today globally recognized and respected.
The African Development Bank was ranked as the Best Multilateral Financial Institution in the world by Global Finance.
The African Development Bank was ranked (in the past two consecutive years) as the most transparent financial institution globally, by Publish What You Fund, scoring last year 98.8% on the transparency index, the highest ever in the history of the global transparency index.
And in 2024, the Bank achieved its highest income ever in its 60-year history.
The African Development Fund (the concessionary financing institution of the African Development Bank) was ranked second best in the world and higher than all 55 bilateral financing organizations in all developed countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
As I complete my two five-year terms as President of the African Development Bank, I am proud of the legacy we are leaving behind for … for my successor, for the Bank, and for Africa.
We have built a world-class financial institution that will continue to advance Africa’s position within a rapidly changing global development and geopolitical environment.
I did not work or achieve alone. I worked with an exemplary group of people, at different points during the past ten years.
I am thankful for the exemplary support of the boards of directors over the last ten years, for your strong oversight, and for our work and operations.
I am very thankful to our board of governors who have given incredible and exceptional shareholder bank support. You were there for us and with us in the up times and the down times. You never doubted us. I am indebted to you for your support.
To our host country, thank you very much for your incredible hospitality. Special thanks and gratitude once again to President Alassane Ouattara, my dear Big Brother, who steadfastly stood by me and supported me throughout my ten years at the head of the Bank. You stood strongly by me in the tough times of 2020. I will always be grateful to the government and people of Cote d’Ivoire.
I am delighted that the Board of Directors of the Bank, under my term as President, approved my vision to build a new world class headquarters for the African Development Bank, right here in Abidjan.
I look forward to coming back to see it rise in the sky. It will send out a powerful signal that the African Development Bank is here to stay forever in Abidjan!
No person is perfect or infallible. I have given my very best and made my own mistakes—all with good intentions. If in the course of my passionate and relentless drive to accelerate the agenda for Africa, I have offended some in word or deed, through acts of commission or omission, please know that it was never personal. Where applicable, I ask for your forgiveness.
To close, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my staff, for your dedication, hard work, diligence, commitment and dependability.
From literally sleepless nights on missions, at global events, on project and country visits, you put up countless times with working with me, often through the nights and sometimes into the early hours of the morning. You showed remarkable resilience.
My apologies for denying you sleep!
You, my staff, are the ones I will miss the most. You are simply amazing. You worked extremely hard, and you delivered big for Africa. Thank you for your selfless and loyal support.
We came a long way, and we did it all for Africa.
Here is a High5 to you all! Keep the faith.
And to my darling wife, Grace, I am deeply grateful for your being my rock. You prayed for me. You encouraged me. You inspired me. You sacrificed for me. You stayed unshakeable by my side at all times.
We weathered some heavy storms together, but God was with us. You always reminded me that the God who was with me on the mountain top is also the one with me in the valley.
Together, we made it through the mountain tops, we went through the valleys, and the waters, and we did not drown.
Together, we gave the African Development Bank and Africa our all.
Thank you very much My Love!
I earnestly gave Africa my heart, my mind and my all. I fought for what I believed were in Africa’s best interest, every single day and at every turn in my 10 years as President.
I will continue to serve Africa today and well into the future by God’s grace. I am thoroughly convinced that He did not make a mistake in creating me as an African.
As I took my oath of office for a second term on September 1, 2020, I made a simple prayer: “God, as I start my second term as President of the African Development Bank, I humble myself before you. I ask that you grant me wisdom and that Africa will shine and prosper. Make Africa shine.”
That is because without God I am nothing; for all we have achieved I owe to God’s infinite grace and mercies.
So, now unto God Almighty who held me up and blessed the works of the African Development Bank over the past ten years be all the glory and honor for ever.
May God bless the African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund that together make up the African Development Bank Group.
May God bless the Board of Directors, past and present.
May God bless the Board of Governors, past and present.
May God bless the amazing staff of the Bank, past and present, my hardworking and innovative senior management teams, and of course, the incredible members of the Staff Council, past and present.
May God comfort the families of some of my staff who passed away over the last 10 years. I will carry with me the precious memories of your service for the Bank. How I wished you were here today.
May God send rains of blessings on every one of the Bank’s 81 shareholder countries to continue to support Africa.
To my beloved country Nigeria and the Presidents who nominated and supported me for election twice as President, I owe my deepest appreciation and gratitude.
To President Goodluck Jonathan who nominated me for my first term; and to President Muhammadu Buhari who carried it forward and backed my election and stood stoically behind me during challenging times and supported my re-election for second term, thank you most sincerely.
My immense appreciation and gratitude also go to Nigeria’s former Presidents and heads of state, President Obasanjo, General Abdusalam Abubakar, General Yakubu Gowon, General Ibrahim Babangida, and former Vice Presidents Atiku Abubakar, Namadi Sambo, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and former Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, all of whom played major roles in supporting me; and of course, my dear sister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who as the then Minister of Finance of Nigeria was my indefatigable campaigner-in-chief in 2015.
To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and to Vice President Kashim Shettima, for your support over the past two years, I am profoundly grateful. Thank you for graciously approving the replenishment of the Nigeria Trust Fund for another 15 years for $500 million.
May God bless you all our heads of state and government in Africa for your incredible kindness, support for me and my colleagues over the past decade.
And may God bless the African Union and all the Regional Economic Communities, the private sector, civil society, youth and women of Africa, multilateral and bilateral institutions, partner institutions, and media organizations who supported us along the way.
Together, we collectively joined hands around the Baobab tree of Africa’s challenges and opportunities.
Thank you all for believing in Africa.
May Africa always thrive and shine!
And may our light never grow dim!
God bless you all.
