Mauritanian Economist Sidi Ould Tah Elected AfDB President as Adesina's Decade-Long Tenure Nears End

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has elected Mauritanian economist Sidi Ould Tah as its next president following three rounds of voting on Thursday afternoon.

The election was held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, concluding the annual meeting of Africa’s premier multilateral development institution.

Tah, who previously led the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea), emerged as the victor over Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo, a World Bank vice president, and will succeed Akinwunmi Adesina when his second five-year term ends in September.

Of the five candidates in the race—four men and one woman—Tah secured 76% of the total vote. Maimbo received 20%, while Amadou Hott, the former Economy Minister of Senegal, garnered 3.5%.

Tah will become the ninth president of the 60-year-old AfDB, which is backed by 54 African countries and several non-African shareholders, including the US and Japan. Nigeria remains its largest single shareholder.

The institution supports major infrastructure initiatives across Africa, in part through the African Development Fund (ADF), whose donor resources are replenished every three years. The next replenishment round begins in November.

However, with the Trump administration having pledged to cut US contributions to the AfDB by $555 million (£411 million) to prioritise domestic spending, the bank may need to explore new partnerships or funding models. Adesina recently noted that the bank's capital has grown to $318 billion.

Tah has pledged to collaborate more with Gulf states around infrastructure development.