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Mauritania’s former finance minister, Sidi Ould Tah, was named the new president of the African Development Bank on Thursday, having won more than three-quarters of shareholder votes following a tense race.
Tah, who replaces Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina after a decade of leadership, enters at a turbulent time: US President Donald Trump has proposed cutting $555 million in funding for the bank’s key development fund, which is an essential resource for the many projects the private sector often views as too risky, Bloomberg wrote.
A focus on diversifying the bank’s financing will likely be a priority for Tah, who recently stepped down as president of Arab Bank for Economic Development, and he has vowed to use his connections in the Gulf to support one of Africa’s most influential institutions.
Tah is due to take over the role on September 1.
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The five candidates for the top job were: Mahamat Abbas Tolli (Chad); Sidi Ould Tah (Mauritania); Amadou Hott (Senegal); Swazi Tshabalala (South Africa); and Samuel Munzele Maimbo (Zambia). They spent between 12 and 18 months campaigning across the continent and meeting other non-regional shareholders to win votes.
The election’s votes were weighted by the shareholdings, so countries including Nigeria (8.2%), the US (6.6%); Egypt (5.6%), Japan (5.5%), and South Africa (5.2%) had a significant influence on how it played out.