… To provide electricity for 250m people
… President tasks US varsity class on global warming
By Kayode Falade
The African Development Bank has embarked on a $25billion area project that will be the largest in the world even as it is meant to provide electricity to no fewer than 250 million people.
This is as the President of the bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, enjoined the world not to stop at anything to fight global warming.
Adesina made this known at an address he delivered to the Class of 2023 Calvin University, Michigan, USA titled “Be God’s Instrument of Change Commencement.”
The AfDB Group President told his audience that the bank had executed many far-reaching, life-touching projects which had brought about positive to change to humanity.
He said: “Today, we are building what we call the Desert to Power initiative, a $25 billion investment to harness the power of the sun and deliver electricity for 250 million people. When completed it will be the largest solar zone in the world.”
Adesina, however, enjoined the 2023 class to use their education to confront the aggression of climate change and global warming which had made the world a more dangerous place to live.
He said: “You are ready — and the world awaits you! A world that faces new challenges, many of them happening simultaneously. At the top of this is climate change, which poses an existential risk for the world. We must do all we can to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“We need innovations to power the world better with renewable energy. We must do all to feed the world. It is not acceptable that over 2.3 billion people in the world go hungry. God did not create stomachs to go empty. He created them to be filled. There must be a hunger free world. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of global pandemic preparedness and the need to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to access to affordable health care.
“After all, all lives matter, regardless of where one lives in our global village, whether you are rich or poor. We all belong to God’s family. He who cares for each one of his creations, expects us to go into the world and do likewise.”
Earlier, the AfDB boss had recounted his travails when he came to the US for studies in 1983 and he never knew he would one day head an organisation which controlled about $208 billion.
He called on the Class 2023 of the institution to also see themselves as being already prepared for the job of influencing the world positively.
He said, “I arrived in America in 1983 with only $750. My scholarship from my home country was not paid. I was stuck in America. I had to survive on $750 for six months. Yes, you heard me right: six months! Of this, my rent was $100 a month, leaving me with $150 with which to survive.
“Many years after, I went on to win the World Food Prize – known as the “Nobel Prize for Agriculture”. How could my professors have known at the time that they were helping someone who would later become a World Food Prize Laureate? How would they have known they were helping someone who would later become President of the African Development Bank Group? Yes, the African Development Bank Group that was ranked last year by Global Finance as the best multilateral financial institution in the world? How could they have known that this skinny kid would go on to manage not 25 cents … but $ 208 billion? They are instruments of change — destiny shapers! These encounters and experiences have helped define who I am and my approach to life … serving humanity and making a difference.
At the African Development Bank, I see my role as delivering hope for millions of people. In the past seven years, our work has impacted the lives of 350 million people.”