By Duncan Miriri and Loucoumane Coulibaly
The African Development Bank is meeting in Ivory Coast this week to pick a new president at a time when the continent’s biggest multilateral lender faces unprecedented challenges from funding cuts by the U.S. government.
Washington wants to cut $555 million in funding to the AfDB and its African Development Fund, which offers low-priced financing to the continent’s poor nations.
“This is going to be a major task and it is effectively the new president’s first test,” said Hannah Ryder, founder of Development Reimagined, an Africa-focused consultancy.
The annual gathering of heads of state and finance officials, taking place this year in Abidjan, is one of the biggest finance meetings on the continent.
It comes as heavily indebted governments in the region are searching for new sources of financing to bankroll their development projects.
AfDB, which is Africa’s largest development finance institution with $318 billion capital, is owned by
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