‘I don’t want freebies’: outgoing AfDB head on why investment, not aid, will shape Africa’s future

‘Africa will be the workshop of the world, brimming with talents,’ says Akinwumi Adesina, a Nigerian economist and outgoing AfDB president. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty

The man known as Africa’s “optimist-in-chief” faces one of his toughest challenges this year: handing over the reins of his beloved institution to his successor. After 10 years at the top of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina will this week see a new president elected at the bank’s annual meeting in Ivory Coast before a handover in September.

Adesina will be passing on a bank that has grown dramatically during his tenure. “In 2015, the capital of the bank was $93bn. Today, the African Development Bank is $318bn.”