Shareholders of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Pan-African multilateral financial institution, have re-appointed Prof. Benedict Oramah as President for a second five-year term.
The decision was announced Sunday in Cairo, following Afreximbank’s 27th Annual General Meeting of shareholders held by the circulation of resolutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The meeting also approved the bank’s 2019 audited accounts and a proposal to raise an additional US$500m equity capital within its current Strategic Plan dubbed “IMPACT 2021-Africa transformed”.
The approval to raise additional equity, the bank said in a statement, was in recognition that the US$1bn earlier authorized to be mobilized had almost been fully raised.
.In his acceptance statement shortly thereafter, Oramah assured shareholders that the bank’s ultimate goal during his second term of office will be the realisation of Africa’s strategic ambition to create an integrated market.
“We want an Africa where the foundations of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) are laid expeditiously so that the 84,000 kilometres of borders that have divided us for ages can begin to come down,” he said.
AfCFTA, he expects, would “drive the industrialisation of Africa, support the emergence of regional value chains, turn Africa’s creative and cultural assets into engines of growth, grow jobs for the continent’s youth, convey respect to Africans wherever they may be and better prepare the continent to compete more effectively in the global markets.”
Oramah highlighted that between 2015 and 2019, Afreximbank disbursed more than US$30bn in support of African trade, over half of which was channeled towards the financing and promotion of intra-African trade.
“We will aim to double intra-African trade financing so that by the end of my term, it will constitute no less than 40% of the bank’s total assets, with aggregate disbursements, on a revolving basis, over the five years exceeding US$30bn,” he announced.
In office since 2015, Prof. Oramah’s re-appointment was one of the key decisions taken by shareholders during the bank’s 2020 General Meeting, via a
A resolution proposing the re-election of Mr. Stefan-Luis Francois Nalletamby as a director representing Class “A” Shareholders and Mr. Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing as a director representing Class “B” Shareholders was also approved by the meeting.
“I make a commitment that with your support, the bank will remain well capitalised throughout my term of office and beyond. We will continue our efforts to diversify sources of equity to include the markets while ensuring that the bank’s development focus remains unchanged,” Oramah assured the shareholders.
Congratulating him on your re-election in a tweet via his personal handle on Tweeter, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, wished Oramah “greater successes ahead.”
