AfDB at 60: Time to reclaim the zeal of its visionary reformers

On its 60th anniversary, the African Development Bank (AfDB) stands on the foundations laid by every one of its past presidents. History shows three stewards in particular guided the institution through decisive turning points: Babacar Ndiaye, Omar Kabbaj and Donald Kaberuka. Their combined reforms offer a blueprint for the next generation. With today’s crises mounting, from shrinking aid to rising debt, that spirit of decisive reinvention must return.

The leadership contest we are witnessing now happens as the continent again faces tightening liquidity, dwindling concessional resources and escalating debt service costs.

These pressures mirror earlier shocks: the post‑Cold‑War aid squeeze of the early 1990s, the commodity price slump of 1998‑2002 and the global financial crisis of 2008‑2009. Each episode forced Africa’s premier development institution to redefine its mandate, strengthen its balance sheet and, crucially, protect its credit standing.

Those lessons remain highly relevant as the Bank prepares for its next resource mobilisation and as African policymakers debate how the institution can best serve a $3-trillion (R53.53-trillion) continental economy that still falls short on infrastructure, climate resilience and industrial diversification.

Ndiaye (president, 1985-1995) led the Bank through one of its most consequential transformations. A consummate Senegalese technocrat and diplomat, Ndiaye secured the 1987 general capital increase that tripled ordinary resources to $23.3bn (R415.2bn) and brought newly admitted non‑regional shareholders behind a common agenda. He went on to champion pan‑African institutions that outlived his mandate, Afreximbank, Shelter Afrique and Africa Re, enlarging the bank’s footprint in trade finance, housing and risk transfer. His ability to persuade Eritrea and Ethiopia, Namibia and South Africa to subscribe simultaneously attested to his diplomatic reach.

Taking office amid that loss of investor confidence, Moroccan economist Kabbaj embarked on a comprehensive modernisation. He restored the Bank’s AAA rating, re‑established the stalled African Development Fund replenishment cycle and rebuilt capital adequacy. Internally, he introduced rigorous financial controls, procurement guidelines and a competitive remuneration policy that attracted and retained talent. Kabbaj also created the administrative tribunal, giving staff formal recourse for employment disputes.

Those governance upgrades were not an implicit criticism of Ndiaye; rather, they extended his commitment to durable institutions. By the end of Kabbaj’s decade, the bank’s balance sheet was stronger, its internal processes codified and its borrowing costs again the envy of peer multilaterals.

Kaberuka, who had already overseen Rwanda’s post‑genocide recovery, confronted the global financial crisis with equal determination. In 2009 he launched a $1.5bn (R26.77bn) emergency liquidity facility, led the temporary relocation to Tunis and orchestrated the bank’s orderly return to Abidjan in 2014, while preserving the AAA status earned under Kabbaj.

Kaberuka’s hallmark, however, was institutional robustness. He strengthened the independent evaluation department, introduced a formal sanctions regime and, for the first time, created an investigation & anti‑corruption office. Recognising the infrastructure gap that curbed Africa’s growth, he also catalysed Africa50, a project development and financing platform that today mobilises non‑sovereign capital with the bank’s own resources.

The achievements of Ndiaye, Kabbaj and Kaberuka illustrate an evolving but consistent mandate: to finance transformative, continent‑wide development while safeguarding the bank’s financial integrity. Yet Africa’s needs have outpaced traditional concessional windows. The climate transition alone could require $250bn (R4.46-trillion) annually by 2030; the digitalisation agenda and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area will demand billions more in risk capital and knowledge services.

The bank’s shareholders, African and non‑African, must therefore decide whether the mandate will expand to crowd in private finance, de‑risk green investment and underwrite regional public goods, or whether it will retreat to classical project lending. Reasoning with them on the basis of facts, Africa can argue that without a financially solid, policy‑innovative AfDB, neither ambition is attainable. A strong capital base, disciplined governance and AAA status are preconditions for leveraging external markets at scale.

But the adversity ahead is more intense than any the bank has faced. A planet warming faster than expected is fuelling droughts in the Sahel, cyclones on the Mozambican coast and devastating floods from Libya to KwaZulu-Natal; harvest failures and disrupted supply chains are driving a surge in food insecurity in more than 20 African countries.

Global financial volatility, higher interest rates and fractured trade corridors are squeezing the sovereign borrowers the AfDB exists to serve and, by extension, testing the bank’s own funding model. Honouring the transformational legacy of past reformers, therefore, is not mere nostalgia; it is the essential starting point for equipping the institution to withstand the next wave of systemic shocks.

It requires political acumen, financial discipline and the courage to act at moments of uncertainty. It requires belief in African institutions as engines of transformation, not just conduits for aid. The road ahead for Africa is not easy, but it is not uncharted. An AfDB with that agility is the bank we want to see and we are confident it is the type of institution our shareholders and development partners will be proud to champion.

• Ezekwesili is a former minister and former VP for Africa at the World Bank

• Gadio, DLA Piper, is a former legal counsel of the AfDB

• Kalibata is a former president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

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