By Abu Bakarr Thaimu Sesay
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has appointed Sierra Leonean Economist Dr. Abdul B. Kamara as Director General designate to Nigeria Country Department.
In a press release confirming his appointment, the AfDB said Dr. Abdul Kamara is a seasoned Economist with over 30 years of experience in development financing and policy work.
“The African Development Bank is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Abdul B. Kamara as Director General designate for the Nigeria Country Department, effective 1st June 2024.”
Dr. Abdul Kamara is a Sierra Leonean seasoned development economist with over 30 years of experience in development financing and policy work, with a track record of providing strategic leadership in delivering transformative operations in Africa. He brings to this role more than 20 years of leadership in operations programming, development and management at the Bank (2004-2024), most notably serving as Senior Agricultural Economist, as Resident Representative for Sudan & South Sudan, as Country Manager for Sudan, and as Country Manager for Ethiopia.
Since 2021, Dr. Kamara served as Deputy Director General for the East African Region, a role he executed with superior performance.
Based in Addis Ababa, Dr. Kamara also combined this substantive role with that of acting as Director of the Joint Secretariat Support Office of the Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and African Union Commission (AUC)
In this role since 2021, he effectively served as the Bank’s de-facto permanent representative to these continental institutions. In 2014, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon appointed Dr. Kamara as Assistant Secretary-General, where he served as the Deputy Joint Special Representative for the Darfur Mission (2014– 2015).
Over the past three years as Deputy Director General for the East Africa Region, Abdul provided co-leadership in setting the Bank’s strategic and program priorities across the 13 countries in the region, and achieved significant milestones in policy dialogue, business development, resource mobilization and overseeing the implementation of the Bank’s USD 17 billion portfolio.
As the Manager of the Research Division (2007- 2011), Dr. Kamara is credited with leadership in policy analysis that informed the Bank’s strategic and operational responses to the Global Financial and Economic Crises of 2008- 2010, and for introducing the Working Papers Series and the Research Seminar Series in the Bank. His superior work has distinguished him at the Bank and earned him 3 distinctive awards: in 2006 he was awarded the ‘Vice Presidency Merit Award for Sector Operations’ for superlative performance in portfolio delivery; in 2016 he won the ‘President’s INNO Pitch Award for Thought Leadership’ in the Bank; and in 2020 he won the ‘Best Country Manager Award’ for exemplary leadership in country dialogue and people management at the Bank.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Kamara held several international positions (1995-2004), notably as Post-Doctoral Scientist and as Research Scientist at key centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), including the International Water Management Institute (IWMI); and as Assistant Professor at the University of Göttingen in Germany. His outstanding research work at the CGIAR earned him Germany’s prestigious Josef G. Knoll Science Award 2002, making him the 1st Sierra Leonean and 4th African laureate of this distinctive honour.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in General Agriculture (1993) and an MSc (cum laude) in Agricultural Economics (1997), both from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, and an award-winning PhD (cum laude) in Agricultural and Development Economics from the University of Göttingen in Germany (2000).Commenting on his appointment, some Sierra Leoneans back home feel honoured for such an enviable appointment that comes with a great sense of responsibility. This according to them shows the determination of Dr. Kamara as he continue to deliver outstanding results for this great institution and for the continent.
