Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah has been elected the ninth president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) group to succeed Akinwumi Adesina in September.
Tah was elected on Thursday by the bank’s board of governors, comprising finance and economy ministers or central bank governors of the AfDB’s 81 regional and non-regional member countries.
The board is the highest decision-making authority for the bank group.
According to media reports, he defeated four other candidates after three rounds of voting, securing 76.18 percent of the vote cast to beat Zambia’s Samuel Maimbo, who had 20.26 percent and Senegal’s Amadou Hott, with just 3.55 percent.
In 2015, it took six rounds for Adesina to secure the presidency, with 58.1 percent of the vote.
Tah will serve as the AFDB president for a five-year term, following the end of the second mandate of Adesina.
