Co-operators paid tribute to Ada Suleimane Kibora, former ICA Africa Regional Director who passed away on 26 March, at the age of 66. He dedicated his whole life to the co-operative movement, having worked for the ICA for more than 23 years.
Former ICA Regional Director, Vincent Lubasi, said Kibora had contributed to the consolidation and revamping of the co-operative movement across the African continent by promoting co-operative policies and reforms. This helped to strengthen co-operative federations and organisations.
”The entire co-operative movement in Africa will forever remember him for his valuable contribution to the development of the movement,“ said Mr Lubasi.
Ada Souleymane Kibora studied co-operative economics at Marburg University in Germany, from 1971 to 1975. Soon after he had returned to his native country, Burkina Faso, he became head of the branch for Community Development of the Ministry for Rural Development.
He was appointed Director of Rural Institutions and Credit in 1978. While in office, he worked on 11 projects on development strategies, 13 projects funded by international donors and engaged with 27 international consultancies. He also helped to develop a law for co-operative societies and village groups.
He joined the International Co-operative Alliance in 1984, as an officer in charge of the research projects led by ICA’s Regional Office in West Africa in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
While in this position, he conducted a study evaluating the then current state and future prospects of co-operatives in the West African region, involving fifty consultants from sixteen countries.
In 1989 he became Director of ICA’s Regional Office for West Africa and from 2004 to 2007 he was ICA’s Regional Director for Africa. He supported the idea of establishing an agricultural commodity exchange in West Africa.
Professor Hans Münkner, a Plunkett Foundation fellow and one of the most respected co-operative experts in Europe, who had worked with him on various projects, said:
“I was privileged to have known Mr. Kibora for more than 40 Years, as his professor and later as his colleague and friend. We worked together on many occasions.
“He will be remembered as an honest, modest and reliable person. He was highly esteemed for his qualities by his friends and by many co-operators.”
