African Development Bank welcomes Banga’s confirmation as World Bank chief | African Development Bank
Diplomat.Today
The African Development Bank
2023-05-04 00:00:00
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Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group, congratulated former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga on his election as head of the World Bank Group.
Banga, 63, was confirmed on Wednesday by the World Bank’s board of directors for a five-year term as the 14e chairman, from 2 June. He succeeds David Malpass, who announced his resignation last February.
Adesina said: “Congratulations my dear friend Ajay Banga on your confirmation as President of the World Bank Group – I look forward to our close collaboration to make greater impact for Africa and the world.”
Banga’s election comes at a critical time of overlapping global challenges characterized by emerging debt burdens in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, which has been hit hard by climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and disruptions in the food and energy markets as a result of Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After being nominated for the job at the World Bank, Banga undertook a worldwide tour in March. He stopped first at the African Development Bank Group headquarters in Abidjan, where he met Adesina and advocated for a strong partnership with the continent’s leading development institution.
During that meeting, Banga and Adesina agreed to work together to achieve transformative outcomes for Africa. They also emphasized the role of the private sector in mobilizing much-needed capital resources for significant economic development.
Banga highlighted three global issues that he said were of great concern to him; inequality; tension between man and nature; and the tendency to apply short-term solutions to long-term problems that yield only poor results.
He acknowledged that the world’s challenges were complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental degradation and the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Click here for the press release of Banga’s visit to the African Development Bank in March.
Click here for more photos.
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