Professor Benedict Okey Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) since 2015 is currently serving a second 5 year term.
He has remarkably piloted Africa’s premier multilateral financial institution to deliver on its mandate of boosting economic expansion in Africa by financing and promoting intra-and extra-African trade. and accelerating industrialization.
A key promoter of AfCFTA as Africa’s pathway to industralisation, he championed the introduction of a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement platform to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. He has also led the onboarding of 500 of the continent’s 600 regulated commercial banks into its Afreximbank Trade Finance Facility (AFTRAF) placing it in the vortex of the most extensive bank messaging network on the continent. The bank is also working with the AU and the AfCFTA Secretariat to develop an Adjustment Facility to support countries in effectively participating in the AfCFTA.
Similarly, the scale of the bank’s intervention in support of African countries at times of global crisis is unprecedented. It introduced in year 2020 the Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) with disbursed funds at more than US$7 billion and in year 2022, the Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Financing Programme for Africa (UKAFPA), a US$ 4 billion programme of credit facilities to manage the impacts of the Ukraine crisis on African economies and businesses.
Prof Oramah is a global public speaker, prolific writer and subject matter expert on African Trade and finance. He has authored Chapters in several books and written over 40 professional/scholarly articles on African economic, trade and trade finance issues.
