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Afreximbank reappoints Benedict Oramah for a second term as President

16 Jun 2020
Financial Nigeria

Summary

In his acceptance statement, Oramah told the shareholders that the bank’s ultimate goal in his second term is to help realise Africa’s strategic ambition to create an integrated market.

African Export-Import Bank President, Benedict Oramah

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a pan-African multilateral trade finance institution, has announced the reappointment of Prof. Benedict Oramah to serve as the bank’s president for a second five-year term. According to a statement sent to Financial Nigeria on Tuesday, the decision to reappoint Oramah was announced in Cairo, Egypt on Sunday during Afreximbank’s 27th Annual General Meeting.

A resolution by the bank's shareholders during the 2020 General Meeting gave the approval for Oramah's reappointment. According to Afreximbank, the shareholders were united in offering their congratulations to Oramah and expressing their confidence in his leadership.

Oramah was first appointed as Afreximbank’s President in June 2015 and he assumed office in September 2015. Before his appointment five years ago, he was the bank’s Executive Vice President, a position he rose to in 2008 after spending over a decade at the trade finance institution.

In his acceptance statement, Oramah told the shareholders that the bank’s ultimate goal in his second term is to help realise Africa’s strategic ambition to create an integrated market. He noted that between 2015 and 2019, Afreximbank disbursed more than US$30 billion in support of African trade with over US$15 billion channeled towards the financing and promotion of intra-African trade.

“We want an Africa where the foundations of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) are laid expeditiously so that the 84,000 kilometres of borders that have divided us for ages can begin to come down,” said Oramah, adding that AfCFTA would “drive the industrialisation of Africa, support the emergence of regional value chains, turn Africa’s creative and cultural assets into engines of growth, grow jobs for the continent’s youth, convey respect to Africans wherever they may be and better prepare the continent to compete more effectively in the global markets.”

Oramah said, for his second term, the bank will aim to double intra-Africa trade financing, to constitute no less than 40 per cent of the bank’s total assets by the end of his term of office.

“I make a commitment that with your support, the Bank will remain well capitalised throughout my term of office and beyond. We will continue our efforts to diversify sources of equity to include the markets while ensuring that the Bank’s development focus remains unchanged,” Oramah noted.

Established in October 1993 with a mandate of financing and promoting intra-and extra-Africa trade, Afreximbank is owned by African governments, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other African multilateral financial institutions as well as African and non-African public and private investors.

Oramah joined the bank in 1994 as its Chief Analyst and rose to the position of Senior Director, Planning and Business Development Department, in 2007. He was formerly an Assistant Manager, Research, at the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) from 1992 to 1994. Oramah holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics. In 2018, he was conferred the title of Professor of International Trade and Finance by Adeleke University in Osun State, Nigeria.


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