The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) tried at the bank's annual meetings last week in Accra to dispel suspicions of bad governance that have appeared in the press, calling on participants and journalists to "tell the bank's stories".

"Go home and tell our true stories, the stories of your bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), a bank that is breaking barriers and setting new standards with humility," said Akinwumi Adesina at the final ceremony of the meetings on Friday, and which he repeated later at the press conference quoted by Lusa.

The appeal followed a May 19 article in the Economist magazine, which noted that incidents over the past two years raise questions about how the bank is run and whether internal overseers have sufficient oversight over the bank's executives.

The article also questions whether the bank maintains the confidence of its creditors, donors and shareholders.

Throughout the week, Adesina insisted on the idea that ADB is "very well managed."

"Our boards are functioning and are efficient and rigorous in fulfilling their oversight functions. Our management is working, our governance, control and supervisory systems are working, our risk management systems are working," he said.

And he was seconded by other speakers, such as Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo, who stressed that the AfDB is "a bank with a global reputation, maintaining, even in difficult times, its excellent AAA ratings, the only African financial institution with AAA global credit ratings."

But it was in a meeting with journalists that Adesina was most forceful, recalling that an independent survey conducted by a human resources firm recorded 85% satisfaction among the bank's employees.

"Our achievements, exceptional management, good governance systems of the Bank cannot be denied or misrepresented on the basis of externally fabricated untruths, distortions, misinformation and a deliberately orchestrated slander campaign to try to tarnish our image," he said then.

The Economist article mentions cases of bank employees with supervisory functions who have reportedly been harassed, intimidated, and even watched by the bank.

In 2020, Adesina, a Nigerian politician who has been in office since 2015 and was re-elected that year, was accused by whistleblowers of abuse of power, favoring other Nigerians and overpaying allies, as well as using the bank's resources for private gain.

A report by the ethics board in April dismissed the suspicions, but the United States, ADB's second largest shareholder, has called for a review of the case by an independent panel.

The panel, led by former Irish president Mary Robinson, ultimately agreed with the ethics board's decision, but with the note that "lack of evidence does not mean proof of absence" and that "it does not necessarily follow from the dismissal of a complaint that there are no matters worthy of investigation."