The African Development Bank (AfDB) is widely praised these days as one of the premier financial institutions in Africa. The past decade saw it place much greater emphasis on infrastructure financing, a change brought about in part by the instincts of its former president Donald Kaberuka. He enjoyed two highly successful terms at the helm from 2005-2015, handing over the reins last September to Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development (CGD played a role in the AfDB election process, with a high profile panel event for candidates in April).
In this week's podcast, Donald Kaberuka discusses how the AfDB’s success came about. "I think my biggest achievement – not me alone, but all of us at the bank – was to focus the institution," Kaberuka tells me, explaining in the clip below: "It was I think the first time when an organization of this size was able to say, 'There are many things to be done, but this is what I'll do, and do it well.'"
Today, Kaberuka is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow here at CGD and a member of CGD's High-Level Panel on Multilateral Banking. He is also a Hauser Leader-in-Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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