Kigali — The Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré has awarded Rwandan head of the African Development Bank Dr. Donald Kaberuka with Mali's highest civil honor, RNA has established.

After discussion with the Malian leader yesterday, Dr. Kaberuka, 56, was appointed 'Commander of the National Order of Mali'.

The ADB President was in the North-west African nation as part of his three-day visit to gauge the actual impacts of the institution's projects, a statement from the bank says.

"Today it is the whole of the African Development Bank that has been honored through this modest being", Kaberuka told the press following his decoration. "This is an honor for me, for the Bank and for its staff, whose exemplary efforts are being recognized here. This distinction, which I accept with great emotion, attests to our exemplary relations and should spur us on to work harder for the development of our continent."

From the start of its operations in Mali in 1970, the Bank manages 92 loans and grants making it one of the country's leading development partners. The Bank now has a portfolio of up to $400 million.

In accordance with the practice he has adopted since he assumed office at Tunisia based continental bank in 2005 - he makes ground visits to partner countries. He has also been to Rwanda on several occasions and other countries on similar missions.

In July last year, Senegalese President Mr. Abdoulaye Wade also honoured Dr. Kaberuka with the 'Commander of the National Order of the Lion' - one of the highest distinctions in Senegal.

Last April, the World Bank and the U.S. aid agency - USAID recognized the former Rwanda Finance minister as one of the top business environment reformers of the year. Dr. Kaberuka stirred the destroyed Rwanda economy from ashes to what it stands today.

On the exclusive club also included finance and economic planning bureaucrats from Mexico, Egypt, Guatemala, Belgium and Tanzania.

Mr. Donald Kaberuka is the 7th elected head of the Bank that relocated from Ivory Coast to escape a bloody conflict. He took the oath of office on September 1, 2005 in a ceremony at the institution's Temporary Relocation Agency in Tunis - Tunisia.

Kaberuka now leads an institution whose financial standing has been restored from the near collapse of 1995, but whose operational credibility remains a work-in-progress.

He hired the Center for Global Development, an independent Washington think tank to propose ways through which the struggling bank that had also lost the confidence of the West - could be turned around.

Dr Kaberuka had actually been elected largely from the influence of the developed countries that carry the majority force on the bank.

The think tank released a report in September 2006 that offered six recommendations for Kaberuka on broad principles to guide the Bank's renewal. The experts recommended that the bank needs to move decentralize its activities - a result of which has been country offices in all countries it operates.