Established to promote economic and social development efforts on the continent, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group comprises three entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB) which is the parent institution, created following an agreement signed by 23 founding member states on August 14, 1963 in Khartoum, Sudan. This became effective on September 10, 1964. The group includes two concessionary windows – the African Development Fund (ADF), established on November 29, 1972 by the African Development Bank and 13 non-African countries; and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF), set up in 1976 by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The inaugural meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank was held from November 4 to 7, 1964 in Lagos, Nigeria, and the headquarters was opened in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in March 1965. The Bank’s operations commenced on July 1, 1966. From February 2003, the Bank operated from its Temporary Relocation Agency (TRA) in Tunis, Tunisia, due to the prevailing political conflict in Côte d’Ivoire at the time until late 2013 when it commenced the return to its headquarters in Abidjan. In June 2015, over 1,500 staff had returned to headquarters out of the more than 1,900 total staff complement in the Bank.