September 8, 2020 marks the 6th anniversary of the return of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to its headquarters in Abidjan, after 11 years in Tunisia.
In 2003, the pan-African institution left the Ivorian capital for Tunis due to insecurity. For his return, Abidjan had to provide solid guarantees.

Given the stakes, for Côte d'Ivoire, President Ouattara had made it a personal matter, which accelerated the responses to the AfDB's desiderara.

Update of the headquarters agreement, final title deed of the bank's headquarters and its annex, dedicated police unit... Abidjan did not skimp on the means.

Faced with analysts who considered the political risk latent, lobbyists multiplied the 'position papers' towards President Kaberuka.

On September 8, 2014, the official return of the AfDB headquarters to Côte d'Ivoire was seen as the most serious leading indicator of a country that has become stable again. 

Following the 2,000 officials of the institution who returned to Abidjan, several multinational firms and international investors flocked.

On this 6th anniversary of the return to Ivorian soil, a question haunts the spirits: has the AfDB been fooled by pledges of temporary materials?

While the political risk in Côte d'Ivoire is approaching the peaks, the slightest attitude of the bank is scrutinized with great attention by all parties.

Every precautionary measure taken by the AfDB can be read as a betrayal by Abidjan, although President Adesina, cleared, feels liberated.

This picture, among others, reflects several years of setbacks during which Africans have continued to flout their own institutions. 

About

* Guy Gweth has been in charge of the Doing Business in Africa program at Centrale Supelec since 2012. He was a professor at the Ecole de guerre économique de Paris, the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale français and the BGFI business school in Libreville. President of the African Centre for Economic Intelligence and Intelligence (CAVIE), he is the founder of Knowdys Consulting Group (KCG).