Africa Road Builders - Angolan President João Lourenço Receives 2025 'Great Builder' Babacar Ndiaye Prize On Sidelines of African Development Bank Annual Meetings

30 May 2025

African Development Bank (Abidjan)

On Wednesday evening in Abidjan, at the official "Africa Road Builders" awards ceremony, the 2025 "Great Builder" Babacar Ndiaye Super Prize was awarded to João Lourenço, the President of Angola.

The event was held on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group. In the absence of the winner, the award was presented to Victor Hugo Guilherme, Angolan Minister of Planning - representing President Lourenço - by the Bank's Director of Infrastructure and Urban Development, Mike Salawou.

Alassane Ndiaye, son of former Bank Group President Babacar Ndiaye (1985-1995), took the floor to express his gratitude for the honour bestowed on his late father.

President Lourenço was announced as the winner of the 2025 award in April in Dubai for his contribution to major transport infrastructure projects in Angola, such as the Lobito Corridor, a strategic regional rail line between Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the construction of the new António Agostinho Neto International Airport, the extension of the national road network, and the launch of the Luanda light metro project.

"The award aims to honour road builders, transport visionaries and creators of Africa's future," said Barthélémy Kouamé, General Commissioner of Africa Road Builders.

Maimounatou Ndiaye Diop, Senior Infrastructure Specialist at the Bank, paid tribute to Babacar Ndiaye and his fair vision of infrastructure, one of the continent's development levers. She also highlighted the actions of the current President of the Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, in particular the "High 5" strategy, the operational priorities launched under his leadership which "have enabled the construction or upgrading of more than 20,000 kilometres of roads".

In addition, a "Great Builder" Special Prize was presented to Alassane Ouattara, the President of Côte d'Ivoire, and the aforementioned Adesina, for their transformative work in the field of transport and connectivity infrastructure.

The "Builder" Special Prize went to Hossam Mostafa, Egypt's Deputy Minister of Transport, Roads and Bridges.

The Babacar Ndiaye Africa Road Builders Prize is awarded by Acturoutes, a platform that provides information on the road network and infrastructure in Africa, and the organisation Media for Infrastructure and Finance in Africa (MIFA), a network of African journalists specialising in road infrastructure. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the prize, which recognises the builders of Africa.

Other accolades

The "Builder" Prize was awarded to:

Kpandji Automobiles (Koume NDa NGoran, CEO) - Côte d'Ivoire

La Congolaise des routes (Jacques Almaless, Managing Director) - Congo

REMEDES Côte d'Ivoire (Marc R. Kouassi, Country Manager) - Côte d'Ivoire

Diakité Holding (Alahassane and Fousseni Diakité, CEO and COO) - Côte d'Ivoire

AGEROUTE Côte d'Ivoire (Fabrice Coulibaly, General Manager) - Côte d'Ivoire

Moonlight Company (Tarek Rizk, Chairman of the Board) - Egypt

Al Saada Group (Said Mahmoud) - Egypt

Think Tank RDC Stratégie (Bodom Matungulu, President) - RDC

Direction générale des infrastructures routières de Côte d'Ivoire (Kouakou Yao Germain, General Manager) - Côte d'Ivoire

Read the original article on African Development Bank (AfDB).