On May 29, 2025, members of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) will elect a new president of the institution to succeed Akinwumi Adesina who mandate at the helm of the continent’s top development and finance institution ends in October.
Among the candidates seeking to succeed Adesina is Dr Samuel Munzele Maimbo (fondly called Sam Maimbo) from Zambia. An ex-World Bank senior official, Dr Maimbo whose candidacy is backed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Community for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA), has been on a tour of the continent to market his vision to lead the institution and solicit support.
In Cameroon on Friday, March 21, 2025, state officials including the Minister of External Relations (Foreign Affairs) and Prime Minister, Head of Government received Dr Maimbo in audience in the capital, Yaounde.
In a press conference later same day, Zambia’s candidate for the AfDB top seat sais he will boost faster development of the world’s poorest continent, taking Africa to a level where it uses all its potential to attain sustainable growth.
He identified major challenges facing Africa as energy, food, health, education and unemployment. These challenges have buried their roots in mismanagement and corruption, to which he says he has a solution.
He lamented that despite having sixty percent of the world’s arable land, Africa produces only fifteen percent of what it consumes, depending largely on import. With optimism, he vowed that the situation will change under his tenure at AfDB.
As for the fight against corruption and mismanagement of funds meant for important projects, the ace Zambian finance expert promised to tackle the root cause of the social ill. He holds that changing the economics and providing stable and dignified jobs to people remains the most effective way of eradicating corruption.
His strategy at the helm of the continent’s development and finance institution, Dr Maimbo said, will stretch along four major points.
“The first thing I am keen to do is to make sure the African Development Bank has a clear mission and purpose. Its job is to be the facilitator-in-chief for development, facilitating both knowledge and finance,” he told journalists.
The second task is a bout efficiency. As Director of Resource Mobilization for the International Development Association (IDA) and the Corporate Finance Department of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), he secured a record-breaking IDA20 replenishment, completed a year ahead of schedule in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
“There’s nobody in the private sector who’s going to wait 18 months for a decision to be made. So halving the time that it takes for decision making is going to be something that is absolutely key,” Dr Maimbo stated.
The third point he will focus on is collaboration with all the stakeholders including the people and other financial institutions, and “fourth, not the least, development is about people,” he added.
A united Africa with one destiny
To make Africa stronger, AfDB, under Maimbo, will invest significantly in the creative industry (cinematography, music, arts, etc.), which have the potential to create a lot of jobs. He cited the huge successes of the Nigerian film and music industries which have a combined annual revenue of over one billion dollars.
Dr Maimbo will fight it out against Senegal’s Amadou Hott, the special envoy of the bank’s Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa and Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah, former Director General of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa. other candidates for the position include Chad’s Tolli Abbas Mahamat, a former governor of the Bank of Central African States, (BEAC) and Tshabalala Bajabulile Swazi South Africa who resigned from her position of Senior Vice President of the AfDB.
The Zambian is aware of the other candidates but stands for a strong and united Africa where the various countries work hands in glove, assisting and partnering with each other.
“This is not a job for one man, it’s not a job for one institution, it’s a job for us all… We need to celebrate this diversity from North to South, East to West and Central. We need to make sure we don’t leave anybody behind,” he said.
“In the six months that I have been campaigning, I have gone right across the continent discussing with policy makers, the private sector, young people; discussing ways in which we can do things differently because business as usual is no longer enough,” he stated.
“There are two things I have separated mentally in my head, first is the election, the second is Africa’s future. When it comes to what brings the two together, it’s what will happen on May 29. And I honestly believe the governance needs to pick someone we can all be proud of, somebody we can put to work from day one because of their experience, their understanding and vision.
“When it comes Africa’s destiny, Africa’s vision, I make no distinction. You can’t develop Africa if you leave out Senegal, if you leave out Cameroon… I will travel the length and breadth of this continent… When it comes to Africa living with poverty, unemployment and hunger and growth, there’s no competition there. Where the competition comes is how we get about it.”
“I do hope that on election day when the governor from Cameroon comes and he makes his vote, he is doing so on behalf of the people of Cameroon, on behalf of the African continent because you, he or she has identified the candidate that this continent needs.”
Collaboration with governments
To the renowned resources mobilization expert, the best way to raise money is to not talk about money. It entails talking about the problems people face and proposing solutions. This idea of his is backed by his previous achievement of raising $93 billion from a budget of $5 billion while working with the World Bank.
His mission of making Africa great will entail collaborating with governments without any intentions of breaking away from tradition, he acknowledged.
“The second pillar of my strategy is working and finding ways in which we support governments. Most of the leaders that we have in place today don’t need any more lectures on how to do development. They know what needs to be done,” Dr Maimbo said.
“The same formula that worked for Europe after World War II, the same formula that worked for the United States, the same formula that worked for East Asia is the same formula that works here. You invest significantly large volumes of financing, you have a comprehensive development plan, you have consistent policies, you invest in technology, and you invest in people…,” he explained.
Bringing in World Bank experience
Dr Maimbo said he want to use his experience at the World Bank to change the narrative at the AfDB.
“The one thing I want to take away from the World Bank and bring to the African Development Bank is the spirit of honest debate…If we are not having honest conversations, we feel good with each other, we smile, we’re cutting ribbons but we are not doing development,” he disclosed.
“The second thing I want to bring from the World Bank is the experience of working in many different places across the globe. I have been to 71 countries now and counting. It teaches you the humility of understanding that there are countries and peoples around the world who have amazing experience when it comes to financing structures in doing development,” he added.
“Developing this continent is going to take a lot of work but I am internally optimistic. I have never been more optimistic about Africa than I am today.
“The optics are positive. The only thing that I am interested in doing is focusing on the implementation… I’m very confident this is Africa’s time. And we have what it takes.”
About Sam Maimbo
Dr Samuel Maimbo is a distinguished scholar with a PhD in Public Administration (banking) from the University of Manchester, an MBA in finance from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Copperbelt University in Zambia. He is equally a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA, UK).
Prior to joining the World Bank where he held several leadership positions, he was a bank inspector at the Bank of Zambia and an author with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
