This text was produced with the assist of Afreximbank
When Benedict Okechukwu Oramah’s curriculum vitae was despatched by his doctoral supervisor to Christopher Edordu, who would change into the pioneer President of Afreximbank nobody knew how the story would unfold.
Nobody might have foretold that he was going to have a 3 decade profession that may lead him to the apex of considered one of Africa’s most necessary multilateral finance establishments.
Edordu was then Managing Director of NEXIM Financial institution and hiring Oramah was, in some ways, a case of the scriptural final turning into the primary as Edordu remembers it.
“I bear in mind the younger man coming to me from his doctoral supervisor, to ask if I used to be prepared to think about him for a spot within the Nigerian Export-Import Financial institution (NEXIM) in 1992 and this was after we had already concluded recruitment.”
Edordu would rent him primarily based on his credentials and when he invited a crop of excessive performers at NEXIM to hitch him on the nascent Afreximbank, Oramah was enthusiastic.
Edordu continues his story. “Originally, Afreximbank was a company that was not wanted as a result of there have been many destructive facets of creating African establishments on the time. However after we provided Okey a spot, he jumped at it and together with others we battled to make the financial institution what it’s immediately, not only a monetary establishment however a software of African improvement.”
After 32 years within the saddle, Oramah bows out in a cloud of adulation and honour. On the thirty second Annual conferences of the financial institution, speaker after speaker from Africa to the Caribbean, North America to Asia spoke of his visionary and galvanizing management throughout his ten years on the helm throughout which he not solely turned the financial institution into one of the vital important promoters of commerce and structured financing in Africa, he additionally facilitated a synergistic handshake with the CARICOM nations and battled a pandemic to a standstill.
On the eve of his departure on Friday June 27, 2025 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria conferred on Professor Benedict Oramah, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, the nation’s second highest nationwide honour in recognition of his contributions not simply to Africa however to Nigeria which has acquired over $52bn in financing assist from the financial institution and at the moment hosts an Afreximbank African Commerce Heart (AATC), an African High quality Assurance Heart (AQAC) and the primary of Afreximbank’s Medical Facilities of Excellence amongst others.
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