The bank’s rating earnings climbed from US$125.3 million to US$973.5 million over the identical interval—representing almost an eightfold enlarge
Abuja, Nigeria | ISAAC KHISA & AGENCIES | When Professor Benedict Oramah joined the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in 1994 as a young chief analyst, few might possibly well possess foreseen that he would devote bigger than three decades to the establishment—culminating in a transformative presidency that redefined its mission and expanded its influence throughout the continent.
On June 28, all the device in which through Afreximbank’s Thirty second Annual Conferences held in Abuja, Nigeria, shareholders appointed Dr. George Elombi as the Bank’s subsequent President, sooner than Oramah’s scheduled departure in September—signalling the imminent conclusion of a consequential 10-one year tenure as President and Chairman of the Board.
Elombi, a Cameroonian, will turn out to be the fourth individual to lead the Bank since its establishment in 1993. Per Afreximbank’s structure, the presidency is shrimp to 2 five-one year phrases. Professor Oramah, a Nigerian economist, assumed the purpose in 2015, succeeding Ivorian Jean-Louis Ekra (2005–2015) and Nigeria’s Christopher Edordu (1993–2003).
Though reserved in demeanour and professorial in tone, Oramah presided over certainly a number of the boldest classes in the Bank’s historical past. What started as a tightly outlined mandate to facilitate trade finance developed—under his stewardship—into a miles-reaching agenda that touched almost every nook of the continent’s financial vogue. From industrialisation and logistics to neatly being infrastructure, inventive industries, and beef up for the African Continental Free Trade Deliver, Afreximbank expanded its reach and redefined its purpose.
This evolution unfolded in opposition to the backdrop of an an increasing number of complicated global atmosphere—marked by geopolitical tensions, excessive borrowing costs, concerns over debt sustainability, and climate-connected shocks.
Yet, in spite of those headwinds, Afreximbank under Oramah emerged as a number one pressure in African trade and vogue finance.
Earnings surge bigger than 10 cases
The numbers repeat the chronicle. Between 2015 and 2024, the Bank’s working earnings rose from US$231.4 million to a heroic US$3.3 billion—an even bigger than 13-fold enlarge. This development mirrored a surge in operational scale, bigger transaction volumes, and a diversification of revenue streams past broken-down trade finance.
Profitability kept tempo. Salvage earnings climbed from US$125.3 million to US$973.5 million over the identical interval—representing almost an eightfold enlarge.
Afreximbank’s balance sheet expanded in tandem with its ambitions. Total resources grew from US$7.13 billion in 2015 to US$40.1 billion in 2024. Salvage loans and advances increased almost fivefold, from US$6.06 billion to US$29.0 billion, underscoring the Bank’s deepening purpose in financing trade, infrastructure, and development-enabling sectors throughout Africa.
Equally essential had been positive factors in monetary self-discipline and likelihood management. The value-to-earnings ratio fell to 18% in 2024, indicating a lean and efficient operation. A liquidity ratio of 13% and a non-performing mortgage (NPL) ratio of fair 2.33% mirrored solid likelihood controls. Benefit in 2015, mortgage impairment charges stood at US$63.4 million, highlighting the mammoth strides made in asset quality and balance sheet resilience.
The Bank is poised to prolong its purpose on the continent, having developed from its roots as a trade facilitator into certainly one of basically the most legit underwriters of Africa’s ambitions to take industrialisation, native attach addition, and intra-continental trade.
Bank’s new initiatives
Essentially basically basically based on the longstanding equity financing gap on the continent—and the necessity to channel investment into development-enabling industries—the Bank launched the Fund for Export Building in Africa (FEDA) in 2021. The Fund is mandated to manufacture patient equity capital to corporations with solid attainable for development and scale.
FEDA focuses on strategic sectors equivalent to manufacturing, logistics, agro-processing, monetary products and companies, and trade infrastructure. It also supports investments in technology platforms and digital products and companies. As of the first quarter of this one year, the Bank had deployed roughly US$579 million through FEDA, with US$565.3 million invested in 2024 on my own—supporting a huge quantity of ventures riding development and job creation throughout the continent.
As certainly one of basically the most vocal advocates for the African Continental Free Trade Deliver (AfCFTA), and a strategic implementation accomplice, Oramah has led the Bank in turning into certainly one of basically the most challenging backers of the trade pact. A suite of beef up instruments has been rolled out to ease trade throughout the continent’s many borders.
Amongst these is the Pan-African Payment and Settlement Machine (PAPSS), developed in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat. PAPSS enables speedy, proper-time funds in native currencies, addressing certainly a number of the core challenges faced by shuffle-border merchants. With its footprint increasing throughout Africa, PAPSS will seemingly be anticipated to birth out in the Caribbean—extra strengthening trade hyperlinks between the two areas. PAPSS has since onboarded about 160 industrial Banks in 16 international locations, complemented with a new PAPSS Credit rating and Debit Cards in partnership with Mercury and Look, enabling holders to use their national currencies in the international locations the set apart PAPSS is enabled.
Further beef up for AfCFTA implementation has come throughout the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, which provides monetary assistance to African international locations managing attainable revenue losses from tariff removals, and to deepest sector actors aiming to toughen their competitiveness. Moreover, the Bank’s Transit Guarantee Scheme—conducted in partnership with regional financial communities and customs authorities—facilitates the seamless walk of items throughout borders by offering monetary guarantees. This tremendously reduces delays and logistical costs, empowering African corporations, in particular minute and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to trade more effectively throughout more than one jurisdictions.
The Bank will seemingly be implementing its Automotive Approach, which supports the vogue of a viable automotive attach chain throughout Africa. This involves beef up for ingredient manufacturing, meeting vegetation, and present chain vogue—laying the groundwork for Africa to turn out to be a aggressive participant in the worldwide automotive market.
Aloof in pursuit of its mission and mandate to take trade, the Bank launched AfrexInsure, a wholly owned subsidiary that offers specialty insurance alternate strategies tailored for trade and trade-connected investments throughout Africa. Launched all the device in which throughout the 2023 AGM in Accra, Ghana, AfrexInsure is designed to veil the peculiar dangers associated with trade and investments on the continent, taking benefit of its guardian company’s deep determining of Africa. Since its birth, AfrexInsure has proven instrumental in offering insurance protection for major projects, together with facilitating all-likelihood constructing insurance for the Afreximbank Africa Trade Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Expanded Afreximbank to the Caribbean
Amongst the defining tenets of Oramah’s tenure has been his outreach to the Caribbean, geared toward leveraging the historical and cultural hyperlinks between the two areas into a huge global African Sixth Deliver initiative. This initiative seeks to pursue total targets and elevate shared prosperity—a mission introduced into bright reduction all the device in which throughout the pandemic when the two areas collaborated successfully on a vaccine procurement programme.
Afreximbank has since expanded its presence in the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) set apart, opening an set apart of job in Barbados and approving a $1.5 billion funding facility for contributors which possess acceded to the Bank’s partnership agreement.
This partnership shall be showcased once more when the Bank, in partnership with the Authorities of Grenada, hosts the fourth AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Dialogue board (ACTIF) in St. George’s, Grenada, from July 28–29, 2025. The 2025 edition will provide corporations a likelihood to unencumber new trade and investment avenues, as trade between the areas is projected to upward thrust to $1.8 billion by 2028.
With an estimated 1,000 delegates anticipated to lend a hand—together with heads of order, authorities officers, deepest sector leaders, and shoppers from Africa, the Caribbean, and past—ACTIF 2025 will focal level on minerals, processed foods, transportation, and varied excessive-attainable sectors for trade and investment.
With trade between the two areas accounting for decrease than 1% of their mixed total exports, ACTIF’s success shall be a gentle addition to both areas. This might possibly perhaps perhaps even present novel momentum to Afreximbank’s ambitions—no longer finest to promote, finance, and facilitate intra- and further-African trade, but to behave as a catalyst for financial transformation throughout Africa and the Caribbean.
Talking to a complete bunch of participants on the Thirty second Afreximbank Annual Assembly on the Transcorp Hilton hotel—the set apart his breeze with the Bank first started—Oramah expressed his gratitude to all folks that supported him in meeting the expectations of both the continent and the Bank’s shareholders.
He added: “I’m proud that my three daughters accommodated my absences with grace. My accomplice, my Rock of Gibraltar, became the tree that made the forest previously 10 years. I’m joyful that I will now verbalize to all of them that they’ll now possess their father and husband lend a hand.”
