After 3,650 days at the helm of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina is stepping down. His decade-long presidency was defined not by donor pledges but by an audacious idea: Africa did not need aid; it needed investment.
When he took charge in 2015, the AfDB was seen as a cautious lender, funding incremental projects. By 2025, its capital base had tripled, infrastructure deals spanned from the Sahel's solar corridors to Mozambique's gas fields, and billions had been channeled