CAIRO, Egypt, October 27, 2025/APO Group: Dr. George Elombi was sworn in on Saturday in Cairo, Egypt, as African Export-import Bank (Afreximbank) fourth President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, taking over from Prof. Benedict Oramah as head of the African Multilateral Finance Institution. In an inaugural address following the swearing in, Dr. Elombi announced his unwavering commitment to carrying forward the legacy of the Bank’s past, 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 disfavourable to Africa and there is a need to change since it’s too reliant 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.”
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.”
Dr. 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 Dr. 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,” Dr. 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 recognize that Africa’s progress depends not only on the strength of individual institutions, but also on the power of collaboration among them,” stated Dr. Elombi.
