ABUJA, Nigeria, CMC – Professor Benedict O. Oramah on Friday ended his 10-year stint as president and chairman of the board of directors of the Egypt-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), hailing the financial institution’s expansion to the Caribbean over the last four years.
“The array of political and business leaders who have joined us from the Caribbean speaks volumes regarding the progress we have made with our outreach to our friends, brothers, and sisters in the CARICOM,” he said at the 32nd Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2025) that ends here on Saturday.
“Over the past four years, we have significantly advanced commercial and cultural linkages within Global Africa,” he said, referring to the concept that recognizes people of African descent the world over as part of Africa.
The annual meetings are being attended by the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis, as well as his counterparts from St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Terrance Drew, and Grenada, Dickon Mitchell.
The Secretary General of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr. Carla Barnett, Grenada’s Attorney General, Minister for Legal Affairs, Labour and Consumer Affairs, Claudette Joseph, former Jamaica prime minister, PJ Patterson, and the chief executive officer of the Barbados-based CARICOM Development Fund (CDF), Rodinald Soomer, are also attending and made interventions at AAM2025.
“Our successful outreach within the Caribbean has led to 12 CARICOM states becoming partner members of the bank, with the 13th scheduled to join next week,” Oramah said but did not name the country.
On the opening day of the conference on Wednesday, Okechukwu Ihejirika, the acting head of Afreximbank in the Caribbean, told Caribbean reporters covering AAM2025 that Afreximbank is interested in doing business in all CARICOM countries.
“So the business is ramping up progressively, and I’m happy as well to say. Hopefully, we should welcome the other big islands, in terms of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, to complete the fold that we’ll have the full complement of the Caribbean available for us to service,” he had said.
During his wide-ranging speech, Oramah noted the establishment of the Afreximbank Caribbean Office in Bridgetown and the subsequent groundbreaking in March for the construction of the bank’s African Trade Centre there, which would become the first outside of Africa.
He said that other notable achievements include the establishment of the Africa-Caribbean Business Council (ACBC) and the launch of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) in 2023, with this year’s edition scheduled to take place in Grenada from July 28 to 29.
“On the business front, your bank has approved and disbursed millions of US dollars and disbursed millions of dollars to The Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, and St. Lucia.”
He stated that in Suriname, Afreximbank serves as the coordinator and a mandated lead arranger of a US$1.6 billion syndicated facility to the state oil company, Staatsolie, for its acquisition of a significant stake in the major oil discovery made by the French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company, Total Energies SE.
In Guyana, Afreximbank is working with the authorities to implement a one billion US dollar Local Content Support Facility to boost the domestic impact of the significant oil.
Production there.
“Afreximbank is also working with the Caribbean Development Fund, the first CARICOM shareholders of the bank, to introduce a Resilience and Sustainability Facility for the CARICOM,” Oramah said.
He recognized and thanked the strong contingent of political and business leaders from CARICOM attending the annual meeting.
The annual meetings had come full circle, having been held at the same hotel where they were first held in 1993, about the same time that Oramah, a Nigerian who holds doctoral and master’s degrees in agricultural economics from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, joined the bank.
Oramah said that when the new president is appointed on Saturday, Abujah will make history as the city where three of Afreximbank’s four presidents were appointed.
He noted that in June 2015, in Lusaka, Zambia, shareholders elected him unanimously as the third president of Afreximbank.
Oramah said that in his acceptance speech, he made a solemn promise to shareholders to” deliver a solid bank that will be a leader among its peers in all measures of financial performance.”
He had also promised to increase the bank’s capital in absolute terms rapidly, enhance capitalization through innovative capital management initiatives, ensure top-notch risk management, and achieve satisfactory returns for shareholders.
Oramah also detailed the other commitments he had made then, adding that he had said there would be no sacrifice too great for him to make “for a bank that saved my life.
“I stand before you most pleased and fulfilled that I kept my promises. I gave the job the best of my energy, intellect, courage, and determination,” Oramah said.
He informed the annual meeting that, as a result, between 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and May 2025, with the strong support of shareholders, Afreximbank had invested approximately US$120 billion in Africa and the Caribbean and US$155 billion over the last decade.
“These must rank among the highest by any standards. We have collectively, over the past decade, built a solid financial institution that is good for Global Africa.”
He pointed out that Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees grew more than eightfold between September 2015 and April 2025, reaching US$43.5 billion.
Total revenues also rose sevenfold, reaching US$3.24 billion, up from US$408 million in 2025. Net income amounted to approximately US$1 billion in 2024, representing a 700 percent increase from its level of US$125 million in 2015.
Internal capital generation, combined with substantial shareholder support through significant additional equity investments, resulted in a rise in shareholders’ funds from approximately US$1 billion in September 2015 to US$7.5 billion as of April 2025. Callable capital also increased from US$450 million in September 2015 to US$4.5 billion.
Oramah stated that liquidity remained strong, with sources of funding much more diversified in 2024 than in 2015 due to the activities of the Africa Resource Mobilisation Unit, which saw the share of African sources of funding rise from 11.7 percent in 2015 to 36.6 percent in May 2025.
He informed the annual meeting that, despite the challenging operating environment, the Bank Group was able to continue its tradition of returning value to shareholders through annual dividend distributions.
Aggregate dividend payments from 2015 to 2024 reached US$1.35 billion.
“Today, Afreximbank has become the trusted institution for mitigating the adverse impacts of economic shocks and the primary source of vital medium- to long-term financing for the African private sector and critical sectors of the African economy,” he said.
The outgoing president pointed out that the trajectory of growth and relevance did not start with him but instead goes back to my predecessors, who grew the Bank multiple times from where they found it.
He said this is why he regards Afreximbank as having no less than US$250 billion in total assets and guarantees by the end of his successor’s tenure, which will be 10 years from now.
“I do not doubt that we would see that given the strength, depth, and scope of the Bank Group today. And we must support and work towards the attainment of that vision because it is by our owning and controlling a bank of that size that Africa can hope to escape from the shame of poverty and underdevelopment,” Oramah said.
He said he was impressed by the rigor with which the Board of Directors selected the candidate they are recommending to shareholders as his successor.
“I urge you all to continue your strong support for the Bank and its new leadership after my exit from your great bank,” Oramah said.
During Friday’s ceremony, the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, conferred the Grand Commander of the Niger honor on Oramah, the second-highest honor in Nigeria.
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