The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has announced its series of annual meetings for 2021.

The theme of the annual meetings which will take place from June 23-25 is “building resilient economies in post-covid Africa” and will include the 56th annual meeting of the governors of the African Development Bank and the 47th one of the African Development Fund. The 81 governors of the bank will review the annual report and operations of the group and adopt key resolutions with a focus on inclusive growth, debt and governance.

Just like in 2020, the meetings will be held virtually due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation in which the prescribed mitigation measures are restricted gatherings and travels.

Most dialogue sessions will be restricted to only the governors and bank officials, but there will be some” knowledge events” that are open to the public such as on climate change and building Africa’s health defences.

EDIT: Also during the annual meetings will be the 2021 African Banker Awards with the two main ones being the African Bank of the Year Award (contested by Afreximbank, Attijariwafa, Banque Centrale Populaire, Commercial International Bank, Equity Group Holdings, Standard Bank Group, Trade and Development Bank and Zenith Bank) and the African Banker of the Year between Ade Ayeyemi of Ecobank Transnational Admassu Tadesse (TDB), Brehima Amadou Haidara (Banque de Développement du Mali), Herbert Wigwe (Access Bank), James Mwangi of Equity Group, João Figueiredo – (MozaBanco), and Kennedy Uzoka of United Bank for Africa.

Also Innovation in Financial Services Award, Financial Inclusion Award, Sustainable Bank, SME Bank, Investment Bank (with nominees Absa EFG Hermes, FBNQuest, Misr Capital, and  Standard Bank of South Africa. There is also the Energy Deal of the Year Award, Debt Deal of the Year (which includes Dangote Cement PLC $208 million bond by FBNQuest), and Agriculture Deal of the Year which has nominees from Banque Misr, Standard Bank Group, Nedbank, Stanbic IBTC Capital and, Afreximbank.

Some of the other nominees of include the Equity Deal of the Year Award, which has the Acorn Holdings student accommodation bond/REIT by Renaissance Capital, Infrastructure Deal of the Year in which TDB is nominated for both Kigali’s King Faisal Hospital and Tanzania’s Standard Gauge Railway.