AfDB President Donald Kaberuka Re-elected for a Second-Term

Abidjan, 27 May 2010- The Board of Governors of the African Development  Bank (AfDB) Group on Thursday, 27 May 2010 in Abidjan re-elected Donald Kaberuka to serve a second term as President of the institution.  Mr. Kaberuka was first elected President of the bank in 2005.

In re-confirming President Kaberuka for a second term, Governors highlighted the need to continue with the progress the Bank has made in recent years to sharpen its mission of becoming the premier development finance institution on the African continent.

Accepting the re-confirmation, Mr. Kaberuka thanked the Governors for their continued confidence in his leadership of the Bank Group: “I am humbled by the decision of the Governors for entrusting me with leading this critically important institution,” he said.  

"I would like to dedicate this re-election to the management and staff of the African Development Bank. This is the victory of a team captain," Mr. Kaberuka said after he was re-confirmed in the position.

“I was first elected five years ago. The Bank has doubled in size and quality assured. But in the next five years, we will have to consolidate on what has been done and put Africa on the international scene."

"We will strive to meet the expectations of African people. We will work to achieve regional integration, fight against climate change and ensure food security,” he said.

The AfDB Group has made improvements in its internal operations and governance, while better focusing on its core development responsibilities in Africa, especially growth in private sector development, financing major infrastructure projects and encouraging regional economic integration.

The recently released 2010 African Economic Outlook (AEO) projects that the continent would  rebound from the marked slowdown in 2009 to achieve 4.5 per cent growth in 2010 and 5.2 per cent growth in 2011. Fiscal balances and current accounts are also expected to show improvements, with inflation dropping considerably.

Because of the increase in demand for African Development Bank resources since the financial crisis, as well as the Bank’s successful record of deploying capital for infrastructure on the continent, the Governors also approved a 200% sixth general capital increase for the institution. The capital increase will allow the Bank to meet the burgeoning demand for financing projects programmes in the Regional Member Countries (RMCs).

The Bank’s efforts to decentralize and significantly improve communication and outreach with both regional countries and the private sector were also highlighted by the Governors.  Under President Kaberuka’s leadership, the Bank has dramatically expanded its presence with country and regional offices throughout the continent.

Mr. Kaberuka, the seventh elected AfDB Group President, took the oath of office on September 1, 2005, in a ceremony at the institution’s Temporary Relocation Agency in Tunis, to begin his first term.

Before joining the Bank, he served as Rwanda’s finance and economic planning minister from 1997 to 2005, and has been widely acknowledged as the principal architect of his country’s successful post-war reconstruction and economic reform programme. He initiated and implemented major economic and governance reforms in the fiscal, monetary, budgetary and structural domains, including the independence of the country’s central banks. These reforms resulted in the widely acclaimed recovery of the Rwanda’s economy and sustained economic growth, which enabled the country to benefit from debt cancellations under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in April 2005.

Mr. Kaberuka had over 12 years experience in the banking industry, in trade and finance, in the international commodity business and in the development sector, before joining the government.

As the country’s finance and economic planning minister, the AfDB President served as Rwanda’s governor at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank.

He was educated in Tanzania and the United Kingdom where he obtained his M Phil (Econ) and a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Mr. Kaberuka speaks English, French and Swahili fluently.