Professor Benedict Okey Oramah, CON, is a celebrated Nigerian economist and astute banker who in 2015 was elected President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Africa’s premier multilateral financial institution. He is currently serving a second term of five years, having been re-elected in 2020.
Since taking office, Prof Oramah has elevated the institution’s profile as the leading trade finance bank for Africa while operating as a profit making, socially responsible financial institution and center of excellence in African trade matters. He has impressively piloted the institution to deliver on its mandate of boosting economic expansion in Africa by financing and promoting intra-and extra-African trade and accelerating industrialization.
Prof. Oramah has 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 AfCFTA. He has also led the onboarding of over 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.
Similarly,under his leadership, he has scaled up the bank’s intervention in support of African countries at times of global crisis such as the year 2020 Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) with disbursed funds at more than US$7 billion and the year 2022, Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Financing Programme for Africa (UKAFPA), a US$ 4 billion programme of credit facilities.
Today, courtesy of Oramah’s leadership, Afreximbank is a stable continental behemoth with a total asset of $31.10bn and total equity of $5.21bn as at 2022, and grossed net income of $450m last year.
Prof. Oramah holds a PhD degree in Agricultural Economics from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and an Advanced Management Certificate from Columbia Business School, New York. In 2018, he was appointed a Professor of International Trade and Finance by Adeleke University in Nigeria
He joined the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) as an Assistant Manager in 1992, and later became one of the pioneer staff of Afreximbank in March 1994. He has worked across different units of the institution and rose to become Executive Vice President, Business Development and Corporate Banking (BDCB) in 2008.
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.
