President of the African Development Bank Group and former Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adesina, on Wednesday received the award of the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership.
Tribune Online reports the announcement of the former Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture last December, by the selection committee led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, as the winner of the prestigious biennial global prize in celebration of the democratic and development-oriented ideals of a foremost Pan-African nationalist, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Adesina received the award at a programme for the 115th posthumous birthday of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Lagos, and joined past winners like Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and lawyer-educationist, Chief Afe Babalola.
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Here are 12 facts about the 4th winner of the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership;
1. Adesina was born in Ibadan, Oyo state, to a Nigerian farmer, and went to a rural school. He graduated from the University of Ife (now known as Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and first-class honours. Adesina was the first student to get this honour from the college and went on to study at Purdue University in Indiana before making a quick trip back to Nigeria in 1984 to tie the knot. Adesina earned the Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award for his research work at Purdue University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 1988.
2. Adesina is the 8th elected President of the African Development Bank Group. He was the first elected to the position on May 28, 2015, by the Bank’s Board of Governors in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and historically unanimously re-elected in 2020.
3. Adesina is a globally renowned development economist and agricultural development expert, with more than 30 years of international experience. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics (First Class Honours) from the University of Ige (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Nigeria.
4. Adesina is often referred to as a bold reformer, evident in his ending 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector by developing and implementing an innovative electronic wallet system, which directly provided 15 million farmers with subsidised farm inputs at scale using their mobile phones, as the Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria from 2011-2015. The initiative effectively ended fertilizer corruption and transformed the lives of farmers and communities.
5. Adesina was the Vice President (Policy and Partnerships) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), where he led several bold and innovative policy and finance initiatives that leveraged over $4 billion in Bank finance commitments to Africa’s agriculture sector. Working with African Heads of State and Ministers of Finance, leaders in the commercial banking industry and Central Bank Governors across several African countries, Adesina successfully led one of the largest global efforts to leverage domestic bank finance for the agricultural sector.
6. In 2008, Adesina also served as Associate Director and Regional Director for the Southern Africa Office of the Rockefeller Foundation for over a decade. He was Principal Economist for the West Africa Rice Development Association (1990-1995), Senior Economist and Social Science Coordinator for the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture(1995-1998) and Assistant Principal Economist of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (1988-1990).
7. Adesina is also a prolific writer as he has authored over 70 scholarly publications on policy, agricultural development, and African development issues. He is a globally respected economist and has served as the President of the African Association of Agricultural Economists, as well as on the Editorial Board of several academic journals. Including the International Journal of Agricultural Economists. He was awarded the Outstanding Black Agricultural Economist Award by the American Association of Agricultural Economists. He was a Distinguished Africanist Scholar at Cornell University, USA.
8. In 2015, Adesina launched a bold strategy to transform the lives of Africans called the High 5s: to Light Up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Integrate Africa; Industrialize Africa; and Improve the quality of life of the people of Africa. The High 5s have already impacted the lives of 335 million Africans.
9. Adesina has received several distinctions and global awards, including the YARA Prize (2007) in Oslo, Norway, for his leadership in pioneering innovative approaches to improve access to agricultural inputs for African farmers; Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University, USA, in 2008; Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009 and the Grand Commander of Great Ife in 2013, both from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; and Borlaug CAST Communications Award in 2010 by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, USA, for his global leadership on agricultural science and technology.
He has received several honorary doctoral awards globally, including Franklin and Marshall College, USA; Purdue University, USA; Michigan State University, USA; Duke University, USA; and the University of Alberta Canada.
In Africa, he has received honorary doctorates from major universities, including Makerere University, Uganda; Addis Ababa University; The American University of Nigeria; Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria; Afe Babalola University Nigeria; Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria; Bowen University Nigeria; Veritas University, Nigeria; Bayero University, Nigeria; and the Nigerian Defense Academy.
In October 2017, his alma mater, Purdue University, USA, decorated him with its highest honour, the Order of the Griffin, a rare honour given only to 50 persons since 1893, including Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
10. In 2010, Adesina was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, as one of 17 world leaders to galvanize international support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Also in 2019, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Adesina as one of the 23 global leaders to help end hunger and malnutrition. He serves globally as one of the Economists. He was a Distinguished Africanist Scholar at Cornell University, USA.
11. In 2017, Adesina was ranked in the top 15 of the 100 most influential global leaders in multilateral development organizations. In 2019, Adesina was awarded several distinguished awards including the prestigious Sunhak Peace Prize in Seoul, South Korea, for his global leadership on agriculture, and food security. Transparency, and good governance. He dedicated his $500,000 award prize to the World Hunger Fighters Foundation that he established to fight global hunger.
He was awarded the Emeka Anyaoku Lifetime Achievement Award of Outstanding International Icon by the Hallmarks of Labor Foundation, during which Chief Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary-General said, “Dr Adesina’s work and leadership are legendary, unprecedented and worthy of emulation.”
12. Adesina was also named the African of the Year by the All-Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA™) in recognition of his bold leadership and the innovation of the Africa Investment Forum, which opened billions of dollars of investment into the continent.
In 2019, Adesina led the African Development Bank to achieve its highest capital increase since the Bank’s establishment in 1964, when shareholders raised the general capital of the Bank from $93 billion to $208 billion, a historic achievement for Africa.