Shareholders of the African Export‑Import Bank (Afreximbank) have appointed Dr. George Elombi as the bank’s fourth president and board chairman.
His selection was confirmed at the bank’s 32nd group annual meeting in Abuja after Benedict Oramah’s term ended in September.
A Cameroonian national, Elombi has served at Afreximbank since 1996, advancing from Legal Officer to Executive Vice President.
He held key roles including senior legal officer, chief legal officer, deputy director, and executive secretary before assuming corporate governance responsibilities.
During the COVID-19 pandemic response, Elombi chaired the emergency committee and helped mobilize over $2 billion for vaccines.
As head of Equity Mobilization and Investor Relations, he led efforts that raised roughly $3.6 billion in ordinary equity as of April 2025.
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Elombi holds an LL.M. and Ph.D. in commercial arbitration from the London School of Economics and a Maitrise-en-Droit from University of Yaoundé.
Before joining the bank, he lectured in law at the University of Hull, UK, beginning his academic career internationally.
In his acceptance statement, Elombi pledged to elevate Afreximbank’s mission to industrialize Africa and bolster intra-continental trade networks.
Shareholders unanimously backed his appointment via a global search process managed by an international executive search firm.
Under the bank’s charter, the president’s term is five years, renewable once upon board recommendation and general assembly approval.
He succeeds Nigerian economist Benedict Oramah, who served since 2015 and oversaw transformational asset growth and strategic initiative expansion.
Elombi assumes leadership at a pivotal moment, aiming to build on Oramah’s legacy and pursue the bank’s $250 billion asset target.
Afreximbank has grown from $5 billion in assets in 2015 to over $40 billion by end of 2024 under strategic leadership.
Elombi’s deep institutional knowledge and governance expertise position him to guide the bank through its next phase of continental impact.
