Donald Kaberuka was the seventh elected President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) since its establishment in 1964. He was first elected in 2005 and was re-elected in May 2010 at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. He completed his second five-year term as President of the Bank Group on Monday, August 31, 2015.

Before joining the African Development Bank, Kaberuka had a distinguished career in banking, international trade and development and government service. A national of Rwanda, he was the country’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning between 1997 and 2005. During this period, he oversaw Rwanda’s successful economic reconstruction after the end of the civil war there.

He initiated and implemented major economic reforms and introduced new systems of structural, monetary and fiscal governance, laying special emphasis on the independence of Rwanda’s central bank.

These reforms led to the widely-recognized revival of Rwanda’s economy, and to the sustained economic growth that enabled Rwanda to obtain debt cancellation under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in April 2005.

During his service at the AfDB, Kaberuka presided over a major redirection in its strategy for development and poverty reduction in Africa. To that end, the AfDB has placed increased emphasis on the private sector, and on the importance of major infrastructure developments in areas such as road, railways, power plants and communications, especially in their role in promoting regional integration in Africa.

During Kaberuka’s period of office, the AfDB has become Africa’s premier financial institution. In 2009, in response to the global financial crisis, the African Development Bank Group made record approvals of loans and grants totaling more than USD 12.6 billion.

Donald Kaberuka was educated at universities in Tanzania and Scotland. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Glasgow University.