Willene A. Johnson Picked As U.S. Executive Director Of The African Development Bank

Jet, Sept 13, 1999

President Clinton has nominated Willene A. Johnson as U.S. Executive Director of the African Development Bank.

Johnson of New York, NY, has served on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 1982.

The African Development Bank Group is a multilateral lending institution which provides funds to national governments and the private sector to support economic development in Africa.

Loans are made through the African Development Bank (AfDB), which lends at market rates to lower and middle-income developing countries in Africa, and the African Development Fund (AfDF), which makes concessional loans at below-market rates to Africa's poorest countries. The United States has been a member of the AfDB since 1983. For fiscal year 2000, the president has requested $5.1 million for the AfDB and $127 million for the AfDF.

Johnson received a B.A. in Social Studies with honors from Radcliffe College, an M.A. in African History from St. John's University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University.