AfDB: Nigeria doubles voting rights before presidential election

Nigeria has nearly doubled its voting rights in the African Development Bank (AfDB) to 16.8% before the lender’s yearly meetings this week, as one of its own, Akinwunmi Adesina, seeks re-election into the bank’s presidency after being cleared of allegations of wrongdoing, Bloomberg said on Sunday.

Africa’s largest country by population emerged the biggest rights holder by far, followed by non-regional members, Germany with 7.4% and the US with 5.5%, according to a memorandum sent to governors on 20^th August that was seen by Bloomberg.

Nigeria upped its voting rights by paying subscriptions it had pledged as part of a general capital before the January deadline.

The move may enable Nigeria to help keep Adesina in the presidency for a further five-year term when the vote holds on 27 August.

He is the only candidate this time around unlike when he contested against Chadian Finance Minister Kordje Bedoumra and Cape Verde’s Agriculture Minister Cristina Duarte in 2015.

The yearly meetings will take place virtually from 25^th to 27^th August after they were postponed in May following the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Read also: Nigeria, other African economies to recover from coronavirus crisis next year —AfDB

“The format of the meetings has been adapted to consider the physical constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” AfDB said on its website.

In July, an independent panel backed an investigation by the AfDB that found no evidence of malfeasance against Mr Adesina, 60, in his bid to seek re-election as head of Africa’s biggest multilateral lender.

The decision was equally a rebuff to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose decline of the institution’s ethics committee’s original report led to the probe.

The inquiry was initiated after unidentified whistleblowers accused Adesina of awarding contracts acquaintances and appointing relatives to key positions at the Abidjan-based lender.

In March, the AfDB issued a $3 billion social bond to assist African nations in dealing with the fallout from the pandemic. It also launched a $10 billion crisis-response facility for African nations.

AfDB’s shareholders comprise 54 African nations and 27 countries in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Asia.

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