Afreximbank chooses continuity with Elombi as president

The African Export-Import Financial institution selected to stay with continuity because it picked George Elombi, a seasoned insider, to steer the continental commerce financial institution at a essential level in Africa’s growth.

The announcement of Elombi because the successor to Professor Benedict Oramah was the crowning occasion of the financial institution’s thirty second annual common assembly. He’ll turn out to be the fourth president of the financial institution established in 1993 after Oramah steps down in September.

Below Oramah, Afreximbank emerged an engine of African financial transformation and integration, serving to beginning a brand new Pan-African Funds and Settlements System to spice up the African Continental Free Commerce Settlement (AfCFTA) and offering funding for initiatives masking a various vary of sectors from vitality to the artistic business. The lender disbursed $20 billion in commerce finance in 2024 alone and is ready to double the quantity in a single yr.

Elombi, who joined the financial institution in 1996 as a authorized officer, was a part of its development and evolution as he labored his strategy to the highest. Previous to his appointment, he was the financial institution’s vice chairman accountable for governance, authorized and company providers. He beforehand labored as a director and govt secretary of the financial institution after rising from the authorized division into the mainstream of administration.

“I’ve labored alongside outstanding colleagues and extraordinary leaders to assist form this establishment’s imaginative and prescient, its mandate in addition to its development,” Elombi stated in his acceptance speech.  “I see Afreximbank as a power for industrializing Africa and for regaining the dignity of Africans wherever they’re.  I’ll work to protect this necessary asset.”

Elombi emerged because the candidate to take over the helm simply weeks after the worldwide ranking company, Fitch, downgraded Afreximbank to BBB- with a adverse outlook from BBB, leaving the lender only one notch towards the junk grade. Fitch cited a better ratio of non-performing loans of seven.1% resulting from mortgage exposures to Ghana, Zambia and South Sudan, difficult the lender’s estimate of two.44% based mostly on Worldwide Monetary Reporting Requirements. Fitch additionally raised questions concerning the financial institution’s threat administration and reporting transparency.

The downgrade implies a better price of funds for Afreximbank, which in flip will increase borrowing prices for its onward debtors, largely Africa’s small and medium-sized companies. In 2024 alone, Fitch expended some $20 billion in commerce financing for African companies and plans to double the determine this yr. The problem for Elombi can be easy methods to preserve the present momentum towards the rising headwinds.

Amongst Elombi’s first expressed commitments was to work in direction of attaining the shareholders’ goal of elevating the worth of Afreximbank to $250 billion within the subsequent decade. The banks whole property on the finish of 2024 had been price $40.1 billion, with one other $7.2 billion in shareholders’ funds.  It has funding grade rankings from six worldwide ranking companies together with GCR at A, Moody’s at Baa1, China Chengxin Worldwide Credit score Score Co., Ltd. at AAA, Japan Credit score Score Company at A- and Fitch at BBB-.

A 1989 graduate of the College of Yaounde in his homeland Cameroon, Elombi additionally has a grasp’s diploma in regulation from the London College of Economics and a doctorate in industrial arbitration. “His appointment adopted a rigorous choice course of initiated in January 2025,” Afreximbank stated in a press release.