Abidjan, Ivory Coast, May 30, 2025 (Lusa) - Cabo Verdean Deputy Prime Minister Olavo Correia said on Friday that he hopes to strengthen the relations that the country already has with the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Sidi Ould Tah.
"The new president of the AfDB was president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and we had direct relations with him: he knows us well, the whole team, we have personal relations and there is a friendship that goes back many years with this link between Cabo Verde and BADEA. I think we will be able to strengthen this friendship, now in his capacity as president of the AfDB," Olavo Correia told Lusa in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The Cabo Verdean deputy prime minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, was speaking on the sidelines of the latest meetings at the AfDB's annual meetings, which end today.
"I wish him every success, because we need strong leadership at the AfDB at this difficult geopolitical and financial time internationally," he said, expressing confidence in a "competent and strong team" that will take office in September.
The vote for Akinwumi Adesina's successor on Thursday was "clear and strong", with Sidi Ould Tah obtaining "over 70%" both in the total vote and at continental level, after facing four other candidates, which gives him "a clear mandate", but is also "a sign of responsibility", he stressed.
Olavo Correia believes that the bank can be "more agile, with more capital, more efficient and a bank with impact, to transform African economies. It is not an easy job, but I think Sidi Ould Tah has the experience and a strong team to enable the AfDB to help our countries in the transformation process that we need to carry out as quickly as possible".
The AfDB is one of Cabo Verde's main financiers with a portfolio of five key projects supported with €70 million, including transport, new technologies and digitisation, modernisation of public administration and agriculture.
The archipelago will begin to prepare the strategic cooperation framework for the next five years - which Olavo Correia would like to extend to 10 - to ensure greater predictability and impact on the transformation of the Cabo Verdean economy, along with a doubling of the amount of support from the AfDB.
The annual meetings in Abidjan served to hold meetings "with other partners, it was an intense and fruitful week" for new projects involving digital transformation, administrative modernisation, promotion of value chains and the blue economy", he said.
Regarding the financing conditions in sight for Cabo Verde, “there are no major changes” and they are more related “to the AfDB's ability to mobilise international resources to support, on a larger scale, African countries that need financing, such as Cabo Verde” – an exercise that is being carried out under “more restrictive” conditions, in a scenario of global uncertainty, he added.
“There is a lot of geopolitical movement that will certainly affect the AfDB, but it will be up to the new management to find alternative solutions to these dynamics,” he concluded, after the vote of confidence expressed in the vote in Sidi Ould Tah.
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Lusa
