Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah Emerges New AfDB President

Mr Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania has emerged as the next president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), succeeding Mr Akinwumi Adesina of Nigeria in September 2025.

The former finance minister of Mauritania won the election held at the ongoing Annual General Meeting (AfDB) of the lender in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Thursday.

The results were announced by Mr Niale Kaba, Minister of Planning and Development for Côte d’Ivoire, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the AfDB Group.

Business Post reports that he had 76.18 per cent of the total votes, followed by Zambia’s Samuel Munzele Maimbo, who has the backing of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (CMESA), came second and with 20.26 per cent, and Senegal’s Amadou Hott emerged third with 3.55 per cent.

After the first round of voting, Mr Hott polled 17.62 per cent, Mrs Swazi Bajabulile Tshabalala of South Africa polled 8.24 per cent, and Mr Tah secured 33.21 per cent. Mr Maimbo led the first round with 40.415 per cent, and Mahamat Abbas Tolli had 0.52 per cent.

In the second round, Mr Tah secured 48.41 per cent, Mr Maimbo, 36.68 per cent, Mrs Tshabalala polled 5.90 per cent, and Mr Hott had 9.02 per cent.

This wasn’t until the last round of vote where Mr Tah subsequently secured 76.18 per cent to meet the required 50.01 per cent to emerge as the ninth president of the AfDB.

He was an ex-finance minister and presidential adviser, who has run the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa for the past decade.

In his manifesto, he was focused on four points: mobilising a broader scope of capital, reforming financial systems, harnessing demographics by formalising the informal sector that employs 83 per cent of Africans, and building climate-resilient infrastructure.

He believes the AfDB can turn every $1 raised into $10 of productive capital.

Mr Adesina will bow out as the president of the bank, a position he has held since 2015 for over two terms of five years each in September.

During his tenure, he boosted the capital by 242 per cent from $93 billion to $318 billion.