Sidi Ould Tah elected new President of African Development Bank
He becomes the 9th president of the institution, replacing Dr Akinwumi Adesina, whose second term ends this year.
Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania has been elected the new President of the African Development Bank Group, following a decisive three-round vote during the Bank’s Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Tah, who will begin his five-year term on September 1, 2025, was elected by the Bank’s Board of Governors, which is made up of Finance and Economy Ministers or Central Bank Governors from the Bank’s 81 member countries.
The Board is the highest decision-making body of the Bank Group.
He becomes the 9th president of the institution, replacing Dr Akinwumi Adesina, whose second term ends this year.
The final round saw Tah secure 76.18% of the vote, defeating Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo with 20.26% and Senegal’s Amadou Hott with 3.55%.
Chad’s Mahamat Abbas Tolli and South Africa’s Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala were eliminated in earlier rounds after receiving 0.88% and 5.9% respectively.
The results were announced by Niale Kaba, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Planning and Development and Chair of the Bank’s Board of Governors.
A candidate must obtain at least 50.01% of both regional and non-regional votes to win.
Tah brings over 35 years of experience in finance and development.
For the past decade, he served as president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), where he led a major transformation that saw the Bank’s balance sheet quadruple, earned it a AAA rating, and placed it among the top-rated development institutions focused on Africa.
"I multiplied annual approvals twelvefold and disbursements eightfold. Non-performing loans fell from over 10% to under 0.5%. Today, BADEA is one of the highest-rated development banks in existence," Tah said during the campaign.
Before leading BADEA, he served as Mauritania’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance and held senior positions in multilateral institutions.
His career includes work in financial reform, crisis response, and resource mobilisation, including setting up BADEA’s $1 billion callable capital programme for African development banks.
Tah’s candidacy gained momentum quickly.
Though he was the last to join the race, he benefited from Mauritania’s active diplomacy under African Union Chair Mohamed Ould Ghazouani and backing from Arab League states, including Saudi Arabia.
His message of bridging African and Arab economic interests and his record of delivering strong results resonated with voters. By the second round, he had already secured more than two-thirds of the African vote.
The 2025 election took only three rounds, a much faster process than in 2015, when it took six rounds for Adesina to win with 58.1% of the vote.
"The election was swift and consensual. I look forward to continuing our shared commitment to the continent," said Sandra Kassab, Africa director at France’s development agency.
This year’s Annual Meetings, running from May 26 to 30, are being held under the theme "Making Africa’s Capital Work Better for Africa’s Development."
The Bank Group includes the African Development Bank, the African Development Fund, and the Nigeria Trust Fund, with 54 African and 27 non-African member countries.
Tah’s election comes at a time when the continent is under pressure to speed up delivery on the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals, despite challenges from climate shocks, economic disruptions, and geopolitical shifts.
