Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah has been elected as the ninth president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), succeeding Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina, whose 10-year tenure concludes this year. The announcement was made on Thursday following rounds of voting by the AfDB Board of Governors during the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The Board, comprising finance ministers and central bank governors from the Bank’s 81 member countries, selected Tah over four other contenders: Amadou Hott of Senegal, Samuel Maimbo of Zambia, Abbas Mahamat Tolli of Chad, and Swazi Tshabalala of South Africa.
Tah, who holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, France, has previously served as Mauritania’s Minister of Economic Affairs and as Director General of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa. He has also completed executive training at Harvard University and the London Business School.
Set to assume office on September 1, 2025, Tah has pledged to mobilise private capital, integrate Africa’s informal sector into the formal economy, deepen partnerships with the private sector, and enhance the AfDB’s response to climate change.
