Change of guard at Afreximbank as new boss vows to build on predecessor's legacy

Cameroonian banker Dr George Elombi has formally assumed the presidency of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).

Using his inaugural speech to laud his predecessor Professor Benedict Oramah for building a multi-billion dollar "development supermarket" for the continent, Elombi acknowledged the monumental task of closing Africa's vast trade finance gap.

The leadership transition at the Cairo-based bank comes at a pivotal moment. Afreximbank, a multilateral financial institution founded in 1993 to finance and promote intra-African and extra-African trade, has become a central pillar of the continent’s economic sovereignty.

Under Oramah’s decade-long tenure, the bank’s assets ballooned from $6 billion to over $40 billion, yet it still confronts a staggering estimated annual trade finance shortfall of $100 billion that stifles Africa's economic potential.

In a farewell conference brimming with tributes, Elombi, a Cameroonian national and nearly 30-year veteran of the bank, painted a vivid picture of Oramah as a visionary and relentless executor.

“Okey has helped turn the Bank into ‘Africa's development supermarket’ — an institution with the suite of solutions for our challenges to development,” Elombi stated, using a direct quote from his prepared remarks that encapsulates Oramah’s strategy of creating a one-stop-shop for trade finance, credit insurance, and project funding.

Elombi detailed Oramah’s "portfolio approach," which moved the bank beyond simple trade deals to attack the structural roots of Africa’s trade challenges: poor infrastructure, a lack of industrial capacity, and reliance on volatile commodity exports.

“It addressed the trade infrastructure itself, the roots, the branches, the stem,” Elombi said.

This strategy spawned a suite of innovative subsidiaries and initiatives. These include the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA) for equity investments, AfrexInsure to provide vital credit cover when global insurers retreated, and the landmark Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which has already facilitated billions of dollars in cross-border transactions by allowing settlements in local currencies.

Perhaps Oramah’s most defining moment was his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid global vaccine nationalism, Afreximbank financed the African Medical Supplies Platform, ensuring life-saving supplies reached the continent. “He was the provider of Covid-vaccines,” Elombi noted, a move that cemented the bank’s role as a strategic crisis responder.

Elombi, who most recently served as Executive Vice-President for Governance and Legal Services, was the institutional architect behind many of these initiatives. His deep internal experience positions him as a continuity candidate, but one who must now scale Oramah’s vision to meet overwhelming demand.

The challenge he inherits was starkly outlined by Oramah himself just weeks ago at the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025) in Algiers. In a passionate farewell, Oramah lamented the absence of other African financial institutions in tackling the trade finance gap.

“It is awkward that in this trade fair, apart from Shelter Afrique, I do not see any other African development bank here,” Oramah had said, issuing a clarion call for a unified continental effort.

This $100 billion financing gap represents the unmet demand for credit from African businesses and entrepreneurs, a primary barrier to implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). While Afreximbank’s growth is impressive, its resources alone are insufficient.

Pledging to build on Oramah’s foundation, Elombi signalled a focus on deep execution. He vowed to instil the same “can-do spirit” and continue “challenging the orthodoxy that preaches that nothing good can come out of our continent.”

In a symbolic handover of a commemorative coffee table book, Elombi concluded with a characteristically personal note to his predecessor of three decades: “So, my brother, DIKEORA, the Masquerade of development work, do not be late to the office on Monday at 10am!”

The remark, met with laughter and applause, underscored the close partnership between the two men. Yet, as Elombi settles into his new role, the pressure is on to transform that camaraderie into concrete action, mobilizing African capital to finally finance Africa’s trade.