Ramaphosa, Sirleaf laud AfDB’s President Adesina
By Anthony Areh
South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa and former Liberian President, Ellen Sirleaf have commended Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), for his visionary leadership on COVID-19.
The Communications and External Relations Department in a statement said the two leaders commended Adesina for his support to the continent in a letter addressed to the bank’s president.
Ramaphosa expressed appreciation for the bank’s commitment of 26 million dollars for the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and support in the procurement of critical medical supplies on the continent and other financial assistance to member countries.
AfDB inaugurated 10 billion dollars Crisis Response Facility to support Africa and to address the pandemic and also three billion dollars “Fight COVID-19” social bond.
The statement also quoted Ramaphosa as saying “through these initiatives, the Bank is poised to deploy funds to provide African governments and the private sector with access to financing to reduce the economic and social impacts of COVID-19.
“I commended the AfDB for taking these bold initiatives and for the role played by the bank under Adesina’s leadership during this challenging period,” Ramaphosa said.
Also Sirleaf was quoted as saying “the leaders of Africa, and I dare say the world, have recognised the important changes that you have made in the AfDB, reorganisation of management and restructuring of Bank operations around the High 5s that represent a response to Africa’s more critical development needs.”
According to the statement, while acknowledging the Bank’s highest ever capital replenishment in 2019, Sirleaf sympathised with AfDB president on the pandemic which has affected the economy of the continent.
“Africa respects your (Adesina) intellect and commitment and is pleased that through your leadership our premier institution has received worldwide acknowledgement and recognition for high-quality performance and impacting results.” Sirleaf added.