President of the Africa Development Bank
Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank Group, is a highly acclaimed leader who is passionate about transforming Africa. He is widely recognised for his visionary leadership, which has brought about significant improvements in Nigeria’s agricultural sector during his term as Agriculture Minister from 2011-2015. Through his bold reforms, Dr. Adesina revolutionised Nigeria’s agricultural sector. He put an end to 40 years of corruption in the fertiliser sector by implementing an innovative electronic wallet system that provided farmers with subsidised farm inputs using their mobile phones. The system reached 15 million farmers, dramatically improving their lives. Dr. Adesina was first elected President of the African Development Bank Group on 28 May 2015. He was unanimously re-elected for a second five year term on 27 August 2020. Dr Adesina has been instrumental in driving the African Development Bank Group’s successful High-5 strategy, which focuses on key priority areas for development in Africa. Dr. Adesina is the architect of the Feed Africa initiative, which is a key element of the High 5 strategy. He has also launched an innovative methodology to revitalise Country Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts, placing Heads of State at the forefront of pragmatic efforts to improve food and nutrition security in their countries, with support from the African Development Bank Group. Dr. Adesina graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics (First Class Honours) from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Nigeria, in 1981. Dr. Adesina holds a master’s degree (1985) and a PhD in Agricultural Economics (1988) from Purdue University, United States of America, where he won the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award for that year. Dr. Adesina won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Fellowship in 1988, which launched him into his international career. As the first and only recipient of the AASW award in 2016, Dr. Adesina is a special guest at this year’s event. He will also preside over the FARA Leadership Prize Award Ceremony.