24/07/2025
LIBERIA, ARISE AND SHINE!
Address to the Government of the Republic of Liberia
by Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, CON, CGH
President and Chairman, Boards of Directors,
African Development Bank Group
Monrovia, Liberia
July 22, 2025
Your Excellency Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., President of the Republic of Liberia;
His Excellency Jeremiah Kpan Koung, Vice President of the Republic of Liberia;
Honorable Richard Nagbe Koon, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Members of the Committees of the House of Representatives;
Honorable Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, and Members of the Senate;
His Honor Counselor Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay, Chief Justice Designate, Supreme Court of Liberia and Associate Justices of the Honorable Supreme Court;
Her Excellency Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dean of the Cabinet, and Members of the Cabinet;
Honorable Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Governor for Liberia to the African Development Bank
Honorable Ministers;
Heads of Autonomous Departments and Agencies;
Members of the Media;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good morning!
I wish to thank you Mr. President for the honor and opportunity to address you and the esteemed leadership of Liberia gathered here today. It is an even more profound honor in that the whole of the Government is here today.
It’s always such a great pleasure visiting Monrovia, the proud capital of the resilient and friendly people of Liberia. Thank you for always welcoming me with such warmth and wonderful hospitality.
I have been to Liberia several times. That is because Liberia holds a special place in my heart. I visited during the tenure of my dear big sister, Africa’s jewel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the 24th President of Liberia. I am forever grateful to President Sirleaf for bestowing upon me the Order of the Star of Africa, with the Grade of Grand Band, Liberia’s highest distinction, on January 15, 2018, at a memorable ceremony at the Cecil Denis Auditorium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Today, I proudly wear the insignia of this great honor.
I was present for the inauguration of His Excellency George Weah, the 25th President. And most recently, on January 22, 2024, I was here for the inauguration of His Excellency President Boakai as Liberia’s 26th President.
Liberia’s peaceful transitions of power are a testament to its democratic strength and a source of pride for Africa.
I would like to commend each member of your government and other leaders here today for the various estimable roles they serve in advancing Liberia’s development agenda. Congratulations.
Today, I have been requested by H.E. President Boakai to speak to you to share the experiences from my leadership of the African Development Bank, as well as lessons to inspire your collective efforts to revitalize and unleash hope for Liberia.
So, I will be speaking to you today on “Liberia: Arise, and Shine!
Today, I will be speaking not only as the President of the African Development Bank Group, but also as a proud son of Africa, a believer in Africa, and a friend of Liberia and its peoples.
Liberians, you are a unique people. This is a special place; a place where the voice of freedom went forth, from Liberia’s establishment in 1822 to its independence in 1847. A nation that became the epicenter of hope that inspired independence movements across the continent.
Yes, it is from here that one of your brilliant sons, Dr. Romeo Horton, an indefatigable banker, economist and civil servant conceived a great idea: the idea of creating the African Development Bank. He galvanized and led a “Committee of Nine” which was instrumental in the creation of the African Development Bank in 1964.
So, you can imagine my pride today to be here, as President of the African Development Bank, to speak to the people of the land of the man who inspired the creation of the Bank.
Mr. President, when you were elected in 2024 as the 26th President of the Republic of Liberia, you set out on a clear mission to make Liberia “a truly bright shining star. A Lone Star, forever!”.
Yes, indeed, Liberia must shine. It must shine for its people. It must shine for its neighbors. It must shine for Africa, it must shine for the black race, with dignity and honor, for it is destined to and it has a responsibility to.
Mr. President, you said in your inaugural speech on Liberia that “we have yet to “receive economic progress in ways that reflect the country’s potential and promise, but “I believe our economic conditions can improve when we seize the opportunities we have and that we will do!”.
Seizing and unlocking these opportunities is what the African Development Bank has been doing in Liberia.
Since 1967, the Bank has invested over $1.02 billion in Liberia across 72 projects. As of February 2024, our active portfolio includes 18 projects valued at $397 million, each designed to enhance the quality of life for Liberians.
Just think of the following.
In Transport, a total of 177 kilometres of road construction were completed under the Bank’s Projects in Liberia. This includes the 50-kilometre Fishtown-Harper Road Project; the 16-kilometre Harper Junction to Cavalla Border Road, the 80-kilometre Karloken to Fish Town road as well as the 22-kilometre Sanniquellie to Loguatuo under the second Phase of the Mano River Union Road Development and Transport Facilitation Programme.
In the energy sector, the Bank has financed a total of 2,434 kilometres of electricity transmission and distribution lines. This includes 1,360 kilometres on the Côte d'Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea interconnection project. This strategic regional integration power project involves the high-voltage transmission lines enabling Cote d’Ivoire to export 400 Megawatts of power to the other three Mano River Union member states of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.
The African Development Bank financed the 280 kilometres of transmission lines under the Liberia Energy Efficiency and Access project, benefiting the Roberts International Airport and Pleebo – Fish Town.
The African Development Bank provided $29 million to support the construction of a 45-kilometre 66-kilovolt transmission lines from Paynesville to Roberts International Airport. This included the 980 kilometers of distribution network in both Paynesville Owens grove Corridor and the Pleebo – Fish Town Corridor.
The Liberia Energy Efficiency and Access Project has resulted in 39,792 new connections to the electric grid accessing efficient and reliable power supply. They include 50 health facilities, 65 academic institutions, 43 public facilities, 250 small businesses in Paynesville, Owens grove Corridor, the Pleebo Fish Town Corridor and Liberia's largest military hospital, the 14 Military Hospital, including include the training of 102 professionals and university graduates.
The African Development Bank last year approved $ 16 million for the establishment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank of Liberia – the first such in Africa – to support the businesses and ventures of the youth of Liberia, your best asset, with 60% of the population under the age of 35. I am delighted that this afternoon, I will join President Boakai to inaugurate the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank of Liberia. What a great day!
How impactful! How much hope we have collectively unleashed.
These achievements are just the beginning. The African Development Bank can be counted on as your partner of choice in your drive to accelerate the development of Liberia.
Since I was elected President of the African Development Bank in 2015, the Bank has seen remarkable and historical growth. As I come to the end of my ten years as President, I am very proud of what the African Development Bank has become.
Under my leadership, the Bank launched the High5s, its flagship strategic imprint for Africa’s development: Light Up and Power Africa. Feed Africa. Industrialize Africa. Integrate Africa. And Improve the quality of life of the people of Africa. I am delighted to inform you that in the past ten years, the High 5s of the African Development Bank have transformed the lives of over 565 million people across the continent.
• 128 million people now have access to improved health services.
• 121 million people now have access to improved transport.
• 104 million people are now food secure.
• 63 million people now have access to portable water.
• 34 million people now have access to improved sanitation.
• 28 million people now have access to electricity.
• And from the groundbreaking and unprecedented Mission 300 Energy Summit jointly launched in Dar Es Salaam by the African Development Bank Group and the World Bank Group, and other partners, another 300 million Africans will have access to electricity by 2030.
When I was first elected President of the Bank in 2015 the capital of the Bank stood at $93 billion. From 2015 to 2025, we have grown the Bank’s capital from $93 billion to $318 billion.
We put the expanded capital into remarkable use with unprecedented financial support to all the African countries, including Liberia.
For perspectives, let me explain.
Since the establishment of the African Development Bank in 1964 until 2014, it’s total approvals of were $118 billion. However, in the past ten years alone under my Presidency our total approvals were $102 billion, representing 46% of all approvals in the history of the African Development Bank Group.
We have also ramped up our disbursements. The total disbursements of the Bank Group in the past ten years alone, at $59 billion, represents almost half of all disbursements in the history of the African Bank Group.
These are not just numbers. Thanks to your collective support, this represents a new dynamism, scale and transformative impact of the African Development Bank Group, than at any point in its history.
We provided significant financial support to African financial institutions, from commercial banks to regional development financial institutions, to multilateral development finance institutions, boosting their capital bases.
Under my presidency, we set up and built Africa50 from scratch to what it is today, a first-rate private equity infrastructure investment platform with portfolio companies worth over $7 billion.
The African Investment Forum, launched by the Bank and its partners in 2018 has since mobilized $225 billion in investment interests in Africa, across several projects.
The African Development Bank has strongly supported several African countries in tackling the effects of climate change. The African Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAA-P), with financing commitments of $25 billion from the Bank, and in partnership with the Global Centre for Adaptation, is today the largest climate adaptation program in the world.
Over the last 10 years, the African Development Bank Group has become a global leader in financial innovations that have enabled us to stretch our balance sheets and deliver exceptional impact. The Bank led globally with the use of synthetic securitization in 2015, becoming the first multilateral development bank in the world to do so.
The African Development Bank also launched a $750 million hybrid capital on the global capital market in 2024, becoming the first multilateral financial institution in the world to do so, and opened up a new asset class for investors globally.
The African Development Bank spearheaded (together with the Inter-American Development Bank) the framework to allow the re-channeling of the IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to multilateral development banks, which we can leverage by 4-8 times, to provide much needed concessional financing at scale.
The image, respect and global confidence in the Bank have soared, through our active and unprecedented participation in the summit meetings of G7 and G20.
With your backing, as President, along with colleagues, have amplified the voice and needs of Africa at the highest levels globally.
We maintained the stellar AAA-credit ratings of the Bank for 10 years in a row with all three global credit ratings agencies (Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s) even during turbulent periods of Covid19 and multiple challenges confronting several shareholder countries.
The African Development Bank is today globally recognized and respected.
The African Development Bank was ranked as the Best Multilateral Financial Institution in the world by Global Finance.
The African Development Bank was ranked (in the past two consecutive years) as the most transparent financial institution globally, by Publish What You Fund, scoring last year 98.8% on the transparency index, the highest ever in the history of the global transparency index.
And in 2024, the Bank achieved its highest income ever in its 60-year history.
The African Development Fund (the concessionary financing institution of the African Development Bank) was ranked second best in the world and higher than all 55 concessional financing organizations in all developed countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
As I complete my two five-year terms as President of the African Development Bank, I am proud of the legacy we are leaving behind for the Bank, and for Africa. We have built a world-class financial institution that will continue to advance Africa’s position within a rapidly changing global development and geopolitical environment.
I would like to now share with you some of the lessons I have learnt in ten years of leadership of the African Development Bank, and from my earlier time as Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria, in your quest to achieve success with the President’s agenda on RESCUE Liberia.
First, vision is the compass that leads to success.
It is impossible to achieve what you have not envisioned. Vision must be compelling and must be a moral call that will wake up and inspire ordinary people to rise up, seize the moment and achieve extraordinary things. Before I was elected President of the African Development Bank I had a very clear vision of the kind of Africa I wanted to see and what is needed to get there with the instrumentality of the African Development Bank. I called my vision the High5s, to remind you again: Light Up and Power Africa. Feed Africa. Industrialize Africa. Integrate Africa. And Improve the quality of life of the people of Africa.
When I first mentioned this at the time so many people thought it was an American form of greeting. But a visionary is an architect: the one with the vision is the one who knows exactly what the building will look like. For success, and transformative impact, focus is important. What the High5s did was to allow the Bank to sharply focus so it can deliver impacts.
So powerful is the High5 that the UNDP did an assessment of it and found that if Africa achieved the High 5s it would have achieved 90% of the Sustainable Development Goals and 90% of the Agenda 2063 of the African Union, the Africa We Want.
Your vision with the acronym ARREST (Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law. Education, Sanitation and Tourism) is powerful, if well implemented: These 6 areas will drive economic transformation. They will boost rural economies, ensure food security, lower the costs of transport within Liberia and regionally with its neighbors and improve regional trade. They will enhance the development of human capacity to drive innovation and a well-trained labor force. They will improve the quality of life and assure good health for a more productive population. They will support the diversification of the economy and reduce over-dependence on a narrow commodity export base.
The High 5s of the African Development Bank are fully aligned with the ARREST agenda. You can therefore count on the African Development Bank to deploy more financing to Liberia to translate the power of this vision to concrete impacts on the lives of the people of Liberia.
Second, demand measurable results.
To ensure that we can measure the results of the High5s at the African Development Bank, we had to do a complete overhaul of the organization, first, by aligning the organizational structure to the High5 agenda. We created five Vice Presidencies, each responsible for each of the High 5s. This meant we could hold people accountable for delivery.
Also, we had to change the results and monitoring framework of the Bank to be based around the High5s, so that we can rigorously measure the impacts of the operations on the High 5s at all levels, across countries and regions. Bank-wide Key Performance Indicators were set annually. And every Vice Presidency, Director Generals, Directors down the line to all professional staff had to sign performance contracts. And because the delivery of the High5s were inter-related, for example the provision of electricity will affect agriculture, water and sanitation, health and education, we ensured that performance contracts were linked across departments and vice presidencies. Also, because our works are delivered in countries (by 44 country offices) and regions (with 5 regional offices), performance contracts had to also create joint-delivery compacts between the vice presidencies that handle the sector operations and the country and regional offices.
Third, hold Ministers accountable.
Now, I am speaking as a former Minister in Nigeria. There is need to have a change of mindset about what it means to be a minister. Ministers are not small Presidents. Their primary responsibilities are to help the President succeed by designing and implementing policies and programs in their respective portfolios to deliver measurable and impactful results. The only person that has social and political capital on the line is the President. That is because Presidents are elected. Ministers are appointed. There must not be any confusion about this.
From my experience as a Minister, I learnt that for a Minister to succeed he or she must act like a speed train: choose your destination (your end result), set the direction of travel, set your speed and never stop until you get to your destination. Ministers have no excuse for under-performance.
I remember when I was a Minister, we were asked to set our performance indicators. I deliberately set mine so high that it scared the Minister of Planning who was collating inputs for the President. I set my Ministry’s target as producing an additional 20 million tons of food over four years. By any stroke of imagination that is extremely high and very ambitious. But as I always tell myself, people do not put you in a position of responsibility to do small things. National challenges are huge and only those that can work and deliver results at scale should be called upon to work as Ministers.
I recall the President told me at the Cabinet meeting that he understood that I had set an extremely ambitious target and that we should reduce it to avoid risk of under-achievement of targets. I said politely to my President that he was the only one with a social and political capital on the line and that he selected me as a Minister to help him deliver success and impact at scale. But that all I needed was the President’s full support. I would hold myself accountable.
I said to the President that if I was given the resources and the full support I needed to get my team to deliver and we do not deliver to meet the set targets, all the President had to do was simple: fire me! The whole of the Cabinet hall went silent. I had put my neck alone on the guillotine, alone!
My decision, though risky, set the tone: I will lead my teams to succeed against all odds. And succeed we did. At the end of the four years, we produced 21 million tons of food, exceeding the very ambitious target we had set.
So, here is my advice to Ministers: set very high targets. If your target is too realistic, you are too comfortable; you are not doing enough. Scaling over a stool is not an achievement.
Fourth, encourage teamwork.
The success of your ARREST agenda requires more than one or few departments or agencies achieving their targets. There are interdependencies. Often in government Ministers fight for territories. Each wants to show they are better than the other. Ministers should forget about their egos. Work together for the delivery of impactful programs for Liberians. We deliver more when we work together, instead of each one standing in and defending their own siloed territories.
I have a leadership approach that I call the “Baobab” principle. In African savannas you will find Baobab trees. They have huge trunks. If you want to own your own Baobab tree you can try wrapping your hands around it. Well, you simply cannot. But when you join your hands with those of several others, you can wrap collective hands around the Baobab tree.
I applied this principle effectively at the African Development Bank. That is how we forged the development of the Mission 300 between the African Development Bank and the World Bank, to jointly connect 300 million people to electricity in Africa by 2030. That was how the African Development Bank was able to work with African governments and global partners to launch the Feed Africa Summit, which mobilized over $72 billion for transforming agriculture to achieve food sovereignty in Africa.
Liberia’s challenges and opportunities are like Baobab trees; they require joining hands together to solve them and turn challenges into opportunities.
There is therefore a need to have a clear plan for joint delivery across departments and agencies. Use the Baobab principle. It requires joint work planning to clearly show how proposed interventions will contribute explicitly to measurable results for the ARREST agenda. You cannot leave that to chance. If you do, at the end, it will not add up.
I recommend that you consider putting in place an Inter-Agency Presidential Performance Awards program that will recognize and incentivize inter-agency collaboration. I do this at the African Development Bank. In fact, the Presidential award for the High5s for joint delivery will be presented to staff at the end of August. What you need is a ONE Government approach, similar to the ONE Bank Approach that we use at the African Development Bank. You need to use your budget system to encourage and incentivize projects and programs for multi-agency cooperation. Turn cooperation into collaboration and turn collaboration into partnerships for impact. You get what you incentivize.
Fifth, execute via a One Government approach.
Performance contracts are not enough. Joint delivery requires joint work planning. I introduced, for the first time ever at the Bank, an annual comprehensive joint work planning, during which joint programming was developed, as well as budget allocations were tied to joint work delivery. When I got to the Bank in 2015, I found that the whole Bank operated in silos which made institutional coherence difficult. One major reform that I embarked upon was to break down the culture of silos and create what we called a One Bank. Everyone worked together and aligned to create a common goal. I remember telling my staff that if they looked at a Mercedes Benz assembly plant, while different section produces various components, what comes out of the assembly line is one product: a Mercedes Benz.
The One Bank Model is at the core of the success of the African Development Bank’s transformational delivery on the High5s. We also had to align our work with the priorities of the countries. Today, the High5s are the drivers of Africa’s accelerated transformation in every country across the continent.
Work as One Government. It is simple, but powerful.
Sixth, don’t just blow the whistle, use your yellow card or red card.
There is no need for rules in a soccer game if the referee never uses the yellow card or the red card. I wish to commend you, Mr. President for your decision to conduct performance appraisals for public institutions. Also significant is your decision to sanction public officers that have not complied. There needs to be strict enforcement of performance reviews and consequences for non-performance. Your Performance Management and Compliance System (PMCS) is critical to be able to track performance. But it is only as good as the system applies consequences management. You do not have time for Performance Improvement Plans. That is what is done in companies and institutions. That is not practicable for you in an elected office as you have a very short period (four years) to deliver impacts. You cannot spend time baby-sitting poor performers. The public is eager for results and time is not on your side. So, be firm. Reward performers. Dispense with non-performers. Where you see under-performance where a public officer, department or agency is not scoring development goals for your agenda, be like a soccer club manager: change the player and change the game plan. A stitch in time saves nine.
Seventh, reengineer, reform and strongly support the civil service, and a reformed judiciary that is independent to safeguard the rule of law.
You said it all Mr. President in your inauguration speech “we must restore dignity and integrity to the civil service – livable renumeration and pension schemes for civil servants and foreign service government workers”. And on the judiciary you said, “we must restore respect for the rule of law, and respect for officers of the law across our three branches of government”. You further said, “our government pledges to improve transparency, accountability, and openness to promote good governance”. The civil service is the engine of government. However, it is not always well aligned with the vision and direction of government, and it is too bureaucratic, and lack of a performance culture undermines the ability of governments to succeed. An effective civil service needs to have a performance culture to deliver quality services to citizens. The public must have a say in assessing, transparently, the quality of services provided by the civil service. That is why the African Development Bank developed the Public Service Delivery Indices to measure and assess how the public views the quality of services delivered by the public sector across Africa.
I commend the Government for launching its Service Delivery Charter this year. What is critical is not the Charter, it is how the citizens assess the quality-of-service delivery.
The rule of law and good governance are critical for national development, whether it is in terms of protection of human rights, property rights, and contract enforcement which is critical for attracting investments. An independent and well supported judiciary is the backbone for national development.
As I close, let me say that Liberia’s rescue mission and new future under the ARREST agenda will depend on how it manages its vast natural resources. With its vast natural resources, Liberia has no business with being poor. It should therefore pay greater attention to how it manages its vast natural resources. Its minerals, forests, biodiversity and rich lands should be for its people. Negotiate not for the interests of others, negotiate in your own interest.
Here, I agree with President Boakai, when he said, “with the judicial exploitation of our natural resources we will help unlock the country’s development”. I would only add, Mr. President, that Liberia should end the export of its raw materials. Instead, it should create the enabling environment and invest in critical infrastructure that will allow for the development of industries that will process and add value to all its produces, from agriculture to minerals and metals.
The export of raw materials is the door to poverty. The export of value-added products is the highway to wealth. And Liberia is tired of being poor! For only when Liberia banishes poverty can it be truly free.
As a nation of diversity, Liberia must see its diversity as its strength not its weakness. Regardless of where and how you were born, your genes are Liberian. They are genes of hope, strength and resilience. Genes that allow you to overcome adversity, ravages of conflicts and wars, yet you remain standing. Genes that make you to excel against all odds. If you have these Liberian genes in you let me hear you say, “I am Liberian!”.
As President Boakai said in his inauguration speech:
• Think Liberia. Love Liberia. Together, build Liberia!
I say to you today, Liberia, from the words of the Prophet Isaiah “Arise and shine; for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”.
For I know, right within my soul, that Liberia will truly shine like the Lone Star forever!
May God bless Liberia.
May God bless President Boakai.
May God bless the Government of the Republic of Liberia.
And may God bless the lovely people of Liberia.
Thank you all very much.
