African Export-Import Bank(Afreximbank), on Saturday in Cairo, Egypt, swore in George Elombi as the bank’s fourth president and chairman of the Board of Directors, taking over from Benedict Oramah as head of the African Multilateral Finance Institution.
Formalised with an oath administered by Wale Edun, chairman of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Bank and Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy of Nigeria, the investiture ceremony was witnessed by over 2,000 guests, including heads of state, former heads of state, government leaders and representatives from across Africa and the Caribbean, top African business leaders, all former Afreximbank Presidents, members of the bank’s Board of Directors, shareholders, serving and former staff members, friends and family of Mr Elombi, and a host of other dignitaries.
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In an inaugural address following the swearing in, Mr Elombi announced his unwavering commitment to carrying forward the legacy of the bank’s past, to deepening impact, strengthening partnerships, and continuing the mission of building an Africa that trades with itself and thrives on its own terms.
He pointed out that the structure of global trade was unfavourable to Africa and, therefore, had to change as it was too dependent on the export of commodities, saying: “Our mission is, therefore, to transform the structure of that trade. To change the structure, we must process. We must produce. Unless we produce, we cannot trade.”
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President Elombi announced that, over the next five to ten years, he would prioritise sectors he believed would have the most significant and sustained impact on Africa’s trade and wellbeing, including promoting and accelerating value addition and strategic minerals processing to curb the export of raw potential.
“Afreximbank will, therefore, create a new, high-impact financing window, specifically for projects that process raw minerals into semi-finished goods or finished goods,” he said.
“We will establish a Strategic Minerals Development Programme to finance entire value chains, from extraction and refining to manufacturing finished components, capturing much more value here at home and creating high-skilled jobs for our people.”
Mr Elombi added that Afreximbank would prioritise the deepening of intra-African trade and regional integration as the success of its value addition agenda would ultimately depend on its ability to secure markets for the goods produced.
“We will intensify efforts to break down trade barriers, strengthen cross-border infrastructure, and foster seamless movement of goods, services, people, and capital across our continent,” he said.
“Afreximbank will, therefore, continue to play a catalytic role in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by driving forward key programmes and initiatives developed over the past decade and by introducing new, targeted interventions, where necessary, to accelerate progress.”
Other priorities outlined by Mr Elombi include catalysing and building critical trade-enabling infrastructure; leveraging innovation and digital technology, including exploring the creation of a Pan-African Digital Currency; strengthening financial integration and innovation across the continent; and mobilising global African capital.
The bank would also prioritise its financial strength in recognition that “only a strong and well-capitalised institution can make the scale of interventions required to transform Africa’s trade and development landscape,” Mr Elombi said, adding that priority would also go to growing strategic and innovative partnerships since partnerships with relevant development institutions was central to the bank’s mission of advancing Africa’s trade and economic transformation.
“We recognise that Africa’s progress depends not only on the strength of individual institutions, but also on the power of collaboration among them,” stated Mr Elombi.
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President Elombi noted the increasingly hostile narrative targeted at African multilateral institutions owned and controlled by Africans “not because we fail or are seen as another African failure” but “because we are successful” and added that, unlike other multilateral institutions, Afreximbank’s preferred creditor status was not granted out of goodwill or benevolence of governments but was enshrined in the bank’s Establishment Treaty which is signed by all Member States.
The investiture also featured remarks by Hassan Abdalla, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt; Louis-Paul Motazé, minister of Finance of Cameroon; Aliko Dangote, founder of Dangote Group; Selma Haddadi, deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission and Terrance Drew, prime minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
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