In June of 2018, President of Africa’s Export Import (AFREXIM) Bank, Benedict Oramah and his team held a meeting with the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, at which they disclosed the accompleshments of AFREXIM bank over two decades since 1994. The most important disclosure at the meeting was that AFREXIM had to date made available over $17 billion in funding to Nigerian establishments. Out of this amount over $3 billion in loans remains outstanding. Some of they industries in Nigeria that AFEXIM invested in include Transportation, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Power, and Telecommunications.

In his speech to the president of Nigeria, Oramah added: “Afreximbank’s support to Nigeria had included provision of liquidity and trade finance lines of more than $800 million during the banking consolidation when many international banks cut credit lines to the country and the provision of $1.8 billion to support the economy during the recent oil price shock in 2015-2016. The bank’s current initiatives in Nigeria include the development of testing and inspection centres across the country, in collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON; establishment of a Centre of Excellence for Tertiary Healthcare/Medical Park; and potential participation in the Nigeria SEZ Investment Company Ltd being promoted by the government. They also include support for industrial projects through loans to strategic banks; arrangement and disbursal of $750 million to the Bank of Industry in June; provision of trade and letter of credit lines to all Nigerian banks, in close coordination with Central Bank of Nigeria, in order to ensure access to trade finance; and development of an Afreximbank Africa Trade Centre in Abuja. The bank is willing to work with the government to arrange financing of up to $1 billion to support the government’s investments in trade enabling infrastructure.

AFREXIM was established in Abuja, Nigeria in October, 1993 by African Governments, African private and institutional investors as well as non-African financial institutions and private investors for the purpose of financing, promoting and expanding intra-African and extra-African trade. The Bank was established under the twin constitutive instruments of an Agreement signed by member States and multilateral organizations, and which confers on the Bank the status of an international multilateral organization; as well as a Charter, governing its corporate structure and operations, signed by all Shareholders. The authorized share capital of the Bank is Five Billion United States Dollars (US$5 billion). AFREXIM is headquartered in Cairo, the capital of the Arab Republic of Egypt, commenced operations on 30 September, 1994, following the signature of a Headquarters Agreement with the host Government in August, 1994.  It has branch offices in Harare, Abuja, Abidjan and Nairobi.

Benedict Oramah assumed the position of President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank on September 21, 2015. He was previously the Executive Vice President in charge of Business Development and Corporate Banking from October 2008. He joined Afreximbank as Chief Analyst in 1994 and was promoted to the position of Senior Director, Planning and Business Development in 2007. Prior to joining Afreximbank, he worked as an Assistant Research Manager at the Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) from 1992. Benedict Oramah holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics, obtained in 1987 and 1991 respectively, from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

In 2017, AFREXIM Bank announed a $25 billion loan-fund for the African Trade Strategy (ATS) from 2017 to 2021.