The new World Bank president can take a cue from the development-oriented initiatives of the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, the CEO of Development Reimagined, an independent African-led international development consultancy based in Beijing, Hannah Ryder, has said.
In a document obtained from AfDB, Ryder, a former diplomat and economist with 20 years of experience, said, “The new head of the world’s largest development bank could take a leaf out of the books of the presidents of the African Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.”
According to her, “The US has nominated Indian-American business executive, Ajaypal Singh Banga, to be the next president of the World Bank, making his appointment by the bank’s board all but certain. All eyes in the development finance community will be peeled for indications of what he will focus on.
“However, since Banga has never worked in a multilateral development bank (MDB), let alone run one, I have one piece of advice for him before he decides on his approach. He should speak to Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
“For instance, over the 2019-20 fiscal year (mostly before the Covid-19 pandemic), the World Bank disbursed $14.5bn to Africa, but only a small proportion of this went to building new infrastructure. In comparison, the AfDB disbursed $5.1bn, the vast majority of which went to infrastructure.”
Speaking further, she said, “The continent exports more fertiliser than it imports, despite its need to improve the quality of food production. This is partly because the existing logistical infrastructure, which the World Bank provides small loans to ‘rehabilitate’, is mostly oriented to trade outside Africa.”
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