African Development Bank president sworn in for second term

Moroccan Omar Kabbaj was sworn in Wednesday as president of the African Development Bank (ADB) for a second five-year term.

Kabbaj was unanimously re-elected president of the African financial institution during the extraordinary session of the governing councils of the bank and the African development fund held last may.

In his inaugural speech, Kabbaj surveyed the reforms introduced during his first mandate to improve the quality of the bank's operations, its financial management, and its efficiency.

He also surveyed challenges facing the African continent mainly with regard to sustained development, fight against poverty, and sound governance in addition to the problems related to globalization and regional integration.

He insisted that although tremendous progress has been scored in matters of structural reforms in most African countries, the spread of poverty remains the major challenge thrown at the continent.

Kabbaj underlined further the need to enhance cooperation between countries of the continent and with abroad as well and said the Bank will actively endeavor to consolidate partnership with African countries, donor countries, the private sector and the civil society associations to maximize the impact of the development projects and programs it finances.

Kabbaj, a former minister and top executive of the world bank, who was first elected to the post in 1995, boasts a highly positive balance-sheet after his first term.

Set up in 1964, ADB has a capital of $ 32 billion and gathers 53 regional members (African countries) and 24 non-regional members including the G-7 countries.