By Emmanuel Nduka
The World Bank has called for more impactful and results-driven collaborations to address Africa’s pressing development challenges, including climate change, health crises, and economic instability.
Speaking at the closing of the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) 2025 Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, World Bank President Ajay Banga emphasized that while institutional relationships matter, genuine progress requires shared goals and measurable outcomes.
“Friendship alone is not a strategy,” Banga said, paying tribute to AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, whose decade-long tenure concludes in August. “Our personal relationship helped lay the foundation for renewed cooperation between the World Bank and AfDB. But we both knew that partnership must be rooted in purpose and delivery,” he added.
Banga highlighted Mission 300, a joint initiative by the World Bank and AfDB aiming to provide electricity access to 300 million Africans, as a model of effective collaboration.
“This initiative shows what’s possible when multilateral development banks operate as a system,” he said, noting that real impact depends on concrete results, attracting private investment, and creating jobs to improve quality of life across the continent.
Looking ahead, Banga expressed confidence in the AfDB’s new leadership under Sidi Ould Tah, a former Mauritanian finance minister and outgoing president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.
He reaffirmed the World Bank’s commitment to deepening cooperation with the AfDB under Tah’s stewardship, adding, “The world is watching. We must deliver real progress, real results, and real opportunity.”
