Interview with African Development Bank President

The annual meetings of the African Development Bank took place in South Korea last week, where over four-thousand participants from more than 80 countries are gathered in the southeastern port city of Busan.
Our Kim Hyesung had the chance to sit down with the bank's president before he left.
Let's take a look.
President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina.
Thank you for joining us.

It's a great pleasure to be with you.


1. “Accelerating Africa’s Industrialization” is the theme for this year's African Development Bank annual meeting in South Korea. What made you select that slogan?

Well first and foremost, there is no region in the world or any country in the world that has ever moved from being a poor country origined to being wealthy without actually going through the path of industrialization.
I am not content that Africa having a lot of resources but continue to export raw commodities.
So actually selecting Korea was a very very good choice for the bank because just look at what Korea did. Korea used to be a very poor country in the 1960s, in fact, poorer than many African countries in the 1960s, their per capita income was only 165 dollars per person, today it's well over 26,000 dollars per person, the way Korea did that was through industrialization.


2. What were the main discussion points?

We have talked about the importance of investing in science and technologies. Also that industrialization, for it to be sustained, it needs political will, it needs clear direction, and it needs consistency. I had fantastic discussions with my good friend Doctor Kim, the Deputy Prime Minister, and we signed a memorandum of understanding where it's called the Korea-Africa Tech Corps, so it's like youth corps, but this time it's for techies, the young people going to Africa in the high tech industries, African high tech, young people coming here creating the connection of high value, high tech industries between Korea and Africa.



3. Are there other areas in which South Korea and the African Development Bank could further boost their cooperation? What are they?

Going forward, I think the cooperation between Korea and Africa would focus most likely on the areas infrastructure, quality infrastructure is very very important, whether it's energy sector, whether it's the water sector, and Korea is the world leader in that area. Agriculture will continue to play a very important role forward as well.


4. What's the African Development Bank’s main priority or goal in the coming years?

We have five priorities. We just stick with them, because they are all intertwined. One is to light up and power Africa because whether it is the fourth industrial revolution, the second, third or fourth, they all operate under the same thing, electricity. The second one is to feed Africa. The third is to industrialize Africa. Fourth one is to integrate the continent of Africa. And the fifth is to improve the quality o