On Saturday, the investiture and swearing-in ceremony of George Elombi because the fourth president of Afreximbank will happen in Cairo, Egypt.
A day earlier than the investiture, high-level company will collect to honour the legacy of outgoing President Benedict Oramah by means of a curated collection of thematic occasions continuing beneath the theme – “A decade to construct the pillars of future prosperity.”
Every week in the past, whereas welcoming Oramah, Elombi and different dignitaries to the launch of United Financial institution for Africa’s whitepaper: “Banking on Africa’s Future: Unlocking Capital and Partnerships for Sustainable Progress,” on the sidelines of the IMF/World Financial institution Annual Conferences, Tony Elumelu, chairman of UBA, made a telling remark reflecting the esteem during which the establishment is held.
“I’m blissful to welcome Professor Oramah, and Dr Elombi who might be taking on shortly because the President of Afreximbank, in what I imagine has been considered one of most orderly successions on the continent.”
The announcement of Elombi because the successor to Professor Benedict Oramah whose ten years tenure involves an finish on October 24, 2025, was made on the financial institution’s thirty second annual normal assembly in Abuja, Nigeria.
Accepting the honour, Elombi, who joined the financial institution in 1996 as a authorized officer, and who’s transferring up from his function because the financial institution’s vice chairman accountable for governance, authorized and company companies stated:
“I’ve labored alongside outstanding colleagues and extraordinary leaders to assist form this establishment’s imaginative and prescient, its mandate in addition to its progress. I see Afreximbank as a drive for industrialising Africa and for regaining the dignity of Africans wherever they’re. I’ll work to protect this necessary asset.”
A daring voice for Africa
At completely different world boards, together with most just lately on the Babacar Ndiaye lecture on the sidelines of the World Financial institution conferences, Elombi has advocated for stronger African monetary establishments amid geopolitical shifts, taken points with the best way world credit score scores businesses fee the continent, and defended the popular creditor standing of African multilateral establishments.
In his feedback on the Afreximbank annual conferences in Abuja, he said that “a small variety of African multilaterals have emerged and are making an announcement, taking their place, changing into vital and creating nervousness among the many established multilaterals and members of the Paris Membership.”
And whereas talking in Washington, Elombi issued a name to motion: “the need of getting African establishments that are sturdy isn’t merely aspirational, it’s a name to motion and reminds us that Africa’s future depends upon constructing establishments that mirror our values.”
The 1989 graduate of the College of Yaoundé, Cameroon, who additionally has a grasp’s diploma in regulation from the London College of Economics and a doctorate in business arbitration, has his work reduce out for him as he steps into the massive footwear vacated by Oramah.
In ten years, his predecessor reworked Afreximbank into what has been described as “an engine of African financial transformation and integration,” serving to start a brand new Pan-African Funds and Settlements System to spice up the African Continental Free Commerce Settlement (AfCFTA) and offering funding for tasks overlaying a various vary of sectors from vitality to the inventive trade.
The lender disbursed $20bn in commerce finance in 2024 alone and is about to double the quantity in a single yr.
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