Kigali: The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Donald Kaberuka, on Wednesday beguns his second five-year mandate at Africa’s foremost development bank.

Donald Kaberuka was re-elected by acclamation at the bank’s annual meetings in May in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

During his first tenor, he successfully carried out wide-ranging reforms at the bank which included re-orientating the institution’s operations towards key sectors such as the private sector, regional integration, infrastructure and governance.

Under Kaberuka’s administration, provision of special support to fragile states and post-conflict countries was initiated while the bank adopted a medium term strategy which serves as the institution’s road map.

The bank also played a significant role during the global financial crisis as it stepped in to help African countries, committing several additional billions of dollars.

The bank tripled its capital base to US$100 billion in May.

A trained economist, Donald Kaberuka studied in Tanzania and the United Kingdom where he obtained a Master and PhD in economics at Glasgow University in Scotland.
Before joining the AfDB, he worked for close to a decade in the banking and international trade domains. He was appointed Rwanda’s finance minister in 1997 till 2005.

Kaberuka became the institution’s 7th president when he succeeded Omar Kabbaj from Morocco in 2005.