Akinwumi Adesina Named African of the Year 2019 By African Leadership Magazine

President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has been named as the African of the Year 2019 by African Leadership Magazine.

Over 200 leading African political, business, and diplomatic leaders converged on

Johannesburg over the weekend for the 8th African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Award dinner, including South African Deputy President, David Mabuza, South African Ministers Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Zulu, and the Publisher of African Leadership Magazine, Ken Giami.

The dinner, which has as its theme: “Africa for Africans – Exploring the Gains of a Connected Continent,” provided a unique opportunity for Adesina to deliver a keynote speech on his passion for the African continent.

According to him, “Africa’s population, currently estimated at 1.2 billion, is rising very fast. McKinsey in their recent book Africa’s Business Revolution observes that: Nearly 90 per cent of companies based in Africa, and 58 per cent of those based in other regions, expect their revenues on the continent to grow over the next five years and most plan to expand their African footprint to additional countries.

“The size of business and consumer expenditures in Africa will rise to

$5.6 trillion in five years. The size of the food and agriculture business alone will reach $1 trillion in just ten years. And with the African Continental Free Trade Area, the size of the economies will be $3.3 trillion. Welcome to the Africa of the 21st Century.

The Africa of the 21st Century is keenly aware of its place in the world and determined to be a global investment haven. The Africa of the 21st Century is open for trade. Savvy investors know that if you’re not in Africa, you’re not in business.

“Africa is where the focus of the world is right now as the growth and

investment frontier.”

On his secret of success, Adesina said: “The answer is simple: I focus on solutions, not problems. My principle for development is also simple: I simply list down the things I feel most ashamed of, and then I do the opposite. It’s how I came up with my idea for the African Development Bank’s High 5 strategy to light up and power Africa, to feed Africa, to industrialise Africa, to integrate Africa, and to improve the quality of life of the people of Africa. Five simple, strategic, and highly focused objectives. A very effective strategy!

“Over the past four years, we have helped 18 million people obtain access to electricity, 141 million people to agricultural technologies for food security, 13 million people to finance through private sector investee companies, 101 million people to improved transport services, and 60 million people to improved water and sanitation.

“People such as cocoa farmer Antoine Mani Tonye from Cameroon who

has seen healthy yields from the moment he began planting a locally adapted seed variety.

“People such as millet seller Robiro Kadokah from Togo whose business has been thriving since the opening of a new highway in his area.

“And people such as IT-specialist Jeanne Yamfashije from Rwanda who helps girls in her country excel in science, technology, engineering and math.

“Real people, real results.

“I truly believe there’s never been a more exciting time to be an African.

“Opportunities abound all around. African economies are growing well. Last year 17 countries grew at three to five per cent and 20 countries grew at five per cent and above.”

The President expressed his humility in being “recognised for my very modest achievements and contributions to Africa. Humbled to be nominated by what I gather to be 60 per cent of the votes cast by some one million people, humbled to be at the helm of an organisation that is making a tremendous difference across Africa – the African Development Bank. An organisation that is daily making prosperity a reality.”

He dedicated the award to his wife, Grace, the bank’s board, staff, and colleagues, his mother, and “to the young mothers, struggling to bring up a child, to the farmer in search of a better tomorrow, to the youth of Africa longing for a better future, and to Africa’s journalists who risk their lives in helping to tell Africa’s true story.”

The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Awards is now the most popular vote-based third-party endorsement in Africa.

Some notable previous winners of the African of the Year Award are: former Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2011); Sudanese businessman, Mo Ibrahim (2012); former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar (2013); former President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete (2014); former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan (2015); Tanzanian businessman and philanthropist, Mo Dewji (2016); President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame (2017); and Prime Minister of Ethiopia and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Abiy Ahmed (2018).