At the 30th Anniversary Celebration and 30th Annual Meetings of shareholders of Afreximbank Held on June 19, 2023, At the Accra International Conference Centre, Accra, Ghana.
On that sunny day of October 27, 1993, I sat in the corner of the conference hall of the Hilton Hotel, Abuja, as the inaugural meeting of Shareholders of Afreximbank proceeded. There was a notable air of accomplishment and optimism. While the birth of Afreximbank ushered in a new era of Africans rising to take their destiny in their hands, many at the meeting knew that the journey to that destiny would be long and arduous.
So critical was the task before the young institution that the late Dr Babacar Ndiaye, then President of African Development Bank, who championed the Afreximbank project, said, and I quote:
“It is now increasingly clear that democracy in Africa is not sustainable if it is not accompanied by economic development; that economic growth is impossible without an improvement in Africa’s trade; and that an expansion in Africa’s trade, especially exports, cannot occur without well-capitalised, commercially run, efficient and profitable trade finance institutions.”
That statement was a clear acknowledgement that the event of that day would be pivotal to the future of Africa. Thirty years on, the jury is in, and there could be no better place to celebrate our collective achievements than the birthplace of the champion of Pan-Africanism, the late Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. It is in that context, and with great joy, that I welcome Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, and distinguished guests to Accra. It is highly appreciated that you found the time from your very busy schedules to join us here today. This is clear evidence of the value each of you places on the Bank. Special thanks to CARICOM leaders who travelled across the oceans to be here; an indication that we are finally determined to have one homeland, to redraw the map of the world to unveil a new continent, the AfriCaribbean continent, that extends from Mauritius in the East to The Bahamas in the West. Together, we pave the way for Global Africa to speak with one voice. On this auspicious occasion, we pay special tributes to the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the pioneer President of Ghana, whose ideals and vision are as relevant today as they were when he first espoused them decades ago; we celebrate a man whose convictions form the plank on which Afreximbank stands.
While we celebrate the visionary and brave African freedom fighters of old, we must also pay special tribute to the torch bearers, who, in the present, are steering Africa’s economic struggle. I acknowledge all our leaders gathered here today for standing by the Bank and the ideals of pan-Africanism. I salute our host, His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo, whose pan-African vision laid the foundation for a real unification of all Africans and nurtured our sense of collective identity as a people. Mr President, you opened the path for self-discovery; in deed and in words, you have shown that the continent of Africa is the collective heritage of all people of African descent. Your vision and drive for Africa by Africans reflect the zeal with which you have supported the institution that we celebrate today.
Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, today, we celebrate the wisdom of having our own institutions that understand us; think like us; and therefore, can stand by, and with, us in good and bad times. The history of Afreximbank is a clear proof that we can only develop in the direction we choose by having well-resourced and professionally run institutional arrangements we own and control. Dr Babacar Ndiaye said this as a hypothesis in 1993. Today, I present Afreximbank as a proof of that hypothesis.
Sixty (60) years ago, in May 1963, at the foundation meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU), thirty-two (32) spirited leaders of the new Africa were determined to, once and for all, put an end to the ills of colonialism and forge ahead to create a continent that was bold and self-reliant. At that meeting, they laid out the blueprint for Africa’s socio-economic transformation.
As you saw in the video aired a few minutes ago, the pioneers set as priority key goals, namely:
- to establish a free trade area among the various African countries;
- to establish a Pan-African Payments and Clearing Union;
- to establish a common external tariff to protect the emergent industries and set up a raw material price stabilisation fund;
- to develop trade among African countries by the organisation and participation in African trade fairs and exhibitions and by granting transport and transit facilities; and
- to progressively free national currencies from all non-technical external attachments and the establishment of a Pan-African monetary Zone.
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, for sixty years (60), this well-articulated Road map remained a map and gathered dust. But thanks to the vision of African leaders who founded Afreximbank 30 years ago, one by one, they are being delivered within the framework of “Team Africa”, comprising the African Union and its Agencies, AfCFTA Secretariat and Afreximbank as the underpinning banker. So today, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is up and running, which will save the continent 5 billion US dollars in intra-African transfer changes. It will also expedite and enable payments for intra-African trade in African currencies. It is now possible for a Gambian to buy Nigerian urea fertilisers using Gambian Dalasi to purchase Naira; for a young Ghanian to pay for holidays in Seychelles in Ghanaian Cedi, and for a small farmer in rural Zambia to stream her favourite Nollywood movie paying in Zambian Kwacha. The real importance of PAPSS was captured in a recent speech by His Excellency William Ruto, President of Kenya. Take a listen.
Very soon, we will domesticate all intra-African payments and extend the same to the CARICOM, where just a few days ago, the Association of CARICOM Central Banks adopted PAPSS as their preferred payment infrastructure for a pilot project. By this singular move, we are one step closer to a full integration of African and CARICOM economies. With PAPSS, every African currency will become convertible within Africa. Afreximbank backs the Clearing and Settlements with an amount of 3 billion US dollars. With this level of financial commitment to start up the initiative, you can now understand why for 60 years it never saw the light of day; you can now appreciate why we need our own institutions if we hope to attain our development aspirations.
Your Excellencies, 60 years ago, the founding fathers of the OAU aspired to develop trade among African States by organising and participating in African trade fairs. In 2018, Afreximbank worked in partnership with the African Union to introduce biennial intra-Africa trade fairs. Afreximbank pre-funds the organisation of the Trade Fairs, of which two had been held in Cairo, Egypt and Durban, South Africa, respectively. The two Fairs attracted an aggregate of about 40,000 visitors and about 75 billion US dollars in deals. With the AfCFTA Secretariat joining the partnership following its establishment, the Intra-Africa Trade Fair, branded the AfCFTA Marketplace, has now become the largest gathering of African businesses and traders. The 3rd edition will hold, during 9th to 15th November 2023 in Cairo. While we look forward to your participation and support, may I remind us again that this is being made possible because we have an Afreximbank that backs it financially!
And it is because Africa has Afreximbank that an integrated regional transit guarantee scheme for the continent has been birthed to ease the movement of goods across the 110 borders that divide us. Under the Scheme, goods can move across multiple African borders under one Transit bond, significantly reducing border delays and transit costs. Currently operational in the COMESA region and supported by a 300 million US dollar Guarantee limit by Afreximbank, we expect the scheme to go continent-wide in due course, with the global limits expanded to a billion US dollars. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now closer to a truck transporting goods from Cape to Cairo, doing so seamlessly under one transit bond.
And thanks to the determination of our leaders and our collective efforts, the African Continental Free Trade Agreements was signed in 2018 and came into force a year later, fulfilling another key aspiration of the continent’s founding leaders. To make the Agreement work for Africa, a financial backbone was necessary. That is why the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, my dear brother, H.E Mr. Wamkele Mene, says that Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat are “Siamese twins”. I dare say, that it is Afreximbank’s existence that will give the AfCFTA the best chance of success.
Apart from PAPSS, the Transit Guarantee Scheme, and the intra-Africa Trade Fair, Afreximbank is doing much more to support the AfCFTA implementation. For instance, to deal with the considerable intra-Africa trade finance gap, Afreximbank disbursed over 20 billion US dollars in 5 years to 2021 and projects to double this to 40 billion US dollars in the five years to 2026. It is Afreximbank that arranged the 2.9 billion US dollar bundle of credit and guarantees that made it possible for Egyptian contractors to begin executing the largest Intra-African construction contract for a dam in Tanzania; it was Afreximbank that supported, with hundreds of millions of US dollars, phosphate fertiliser imports from Morocco to Nigeria and Ethiopia. Without an Afreximbank, it would have been harder for Vista Bank, Burkina Faso, to complete the acquisition of some BNP subsidiaries in West Africa. Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat have established the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund intended to, among others, compensate eligible countries for tariff revenue losses arising from the new trade regime while also supporting the private sector to adjust in an orderly manner to the new arrangement. The Headquarters of the 8-10 billion US dollar Fund is in Kigali, Rwanda. Afreximbank has committed to contribute 1 billion US dollars, with 10 million US dollars available in the form of grant funding. We are committed to the Adjustment Fund because we believe that without it, some AfCFTA-Participating States may find it difficult to open their borders for trade under the Agreement.
We are also working with African Regional Standards Organization (ARSO) to harmonise trade standards across Africa. Using Afreximbank mobilised grant funding, over 155 standards have been harmonised, covering priority areas of automobile, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals while work on textiles is ongoing. We also recognise that setting standards is one thing but having the infrastructure to implement them is another. So, working with Bureau Veritas of France, we are building testing, inspection, and certification centres across Africa, under the branded Africa Quality Assurance Centres (AQACs). The first project has been completed in West Africa, and others are underway in North and East Africa. In the next 4 years, African Quality Assurance Centres will be dotted across all regions of Africa.
We also recognise the value of digital technology in vaulting the 110 borders that divide the continent and have therefore developed a digital eco-system we have branded the Africa Trade Gateway. The Gateway provides a centralised platform for conducting intra-Africa trade, enabling the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict supply chains, offering Customer Due Diligence services as well as information on trade, banking, and investment regulations. Payment, banking, and e-logistic services are also available, as well as an e-commerce platform called the Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX), which is AfCFTA-complaint. We expect the platform to be a powerful single window for the conduct of intra-Africa trade.
As international banks continue to withdraw from Africa, we have also made significant progress in improving access to letters of Credit and other trade services across the entire continent. We have SWIFT communication arrangements with almost 500 of the 600 regulated commercial banks in Africa, making Afreximbank perhaps the Bank with the most extensive reach on the continent. Trade lines have been made available to more than 200 of those banks in an aggregate amount of over 4 billion US dollars, halfway to our target of 8 billion US dollars by the end of 2026. Whether you are in Comoros, Nigeria, Chad, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde or Tunisia, there is a bank that can offer you a window to Afreximbank services.
Your Excellencies, Afreximbank has also brought a new kind of hope to Africa: the capacity to confront global challenges without going abegging. The COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine crisis exposed the vulnerability of Africa in many ways. These events dramatised our over-dependence on others for our basic needs of food and healthcare. It also exposed our inadequacies in financing these dependencies in times of emergency. It is to the credit of those who founded Afreximbank that the catastrophe that loomed was averted. From the break of the pandemic in 2020 to the Ukraine crisis in 2022, the Bank has disbursed over 45 billion US dollars into the continent, which enabled many governments, central and commercial banks, corporates, and SMEs to weather the combined effects of these crises by helping countries to honour maturing trade debt payment obligations; to pay for critical imports and to pursue strategic investments. The support of Afreximbank was, by far, one of the most significant investments by a single entity in the last three years. In an era where international banks are exiting the continent, from where would Africa have gotten 45 billion US dollars to fight a global crisis if not from within?
We are fully aware that the dream of continental integration and self-reliance can only be built on a robust and dynamic domestic economy that produces what it consumes. If we don’t produce the goods that can be traded within the continent, others would [do so] and export the jobs, wealth, and the continent’s prosperity. It is in that context that the Bank is proactively mobilising continental and global resources and partnerships to build industrial Complexes across Africa.
In Gabon, investments in a multi-purpose Special Industrial Zone have converted an exporter of timber into an exporter of finished wood and furniture. Gabon is also fast becoming a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and refined Gold. In Benin, a similar investment in a Special Economic Zone is transforming a raw cotton exporter into a continental and global hub for textiles. In Togo, a Special Industrial Zone is promoting diverse exports, producing electric motorbikes and textiles. In Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, special Agro-Industrial Zones are sprouting; in Chad, a meat packaging facility is up and running and increasingly exporting meat to the rest of Africa; in DRC and Zambia, work is well advanced on EV batteries. Similar Investments are being developed in Malawi, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Kenya, and other parts of the continent. These have been possible thanks to an aggregate of about 1 billion US dollars, the Bank had arranged for these purposes for its investee company, ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP), since 2012. Another 1 billion US dollars in investment financing is underway and will be signed today so that we can together achieve our goal of one hundred thousand square metres of industrial estate in a few years. I take the opportunity to thank our partners in this endeavour, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and ARISE for their steadfast commitment to this project.
Similarly, the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical industries, to which Afreximbank is the largest lender, put Africa on the world map for the production of petroleum products, petrochemicals and Ammonia and Nitrogen fertilisers. It would create at least 135 thousand (135,000) jobs, generate about 21 billion US dollars annually in revenues and be a source of supply to many African economies.
These are the kinds of investments and transformations that are possible if we remain steadfast behind our institutions. I thank Your Excellencies for Your unwavering support over the years. I would like to respectfully remind you that Afreximbank builds its strategy around continental aspirations. We do not plan and then expect our countries to shape their aspirations around our plans. Afreximbank serves you and believes in you! It is always Africa and Africans first for us!
Your Excellencies, today we celebrate the first gathering of Global Africa. Collectively, we have converted decades of continental aspiration – to reunite the African diaspora to the continent – into reality. Sitting among us here are Prime Ministers, and officials from both public and private sectors, from the Caribbean and the wider Africa Diaspora, who share in this pan-African vision. They have travelled thousands of miles to celebrate an institution to which they now belong. Eleven (11) CARICOM States have so far joined the membership of the Bank through signatures of the Partnership Treaty. In a few weeks, we will formally launch the operations of the Bank’s Caribbean Office in Bridgetown, Barbados. We are connecting African businesses with opportunities in the Caribbean and Caribbean businesses with opportunities in Africa. We are working with some African and Caribbean airlines to commence commercial operations between the two regions. Afreximbank has approved an amount of 1.5 billion US dollars to support the CARICOM with plans to double that in the near future. We do these not because it is merely a nice thing to do but because a united Africa and the Caribbean represent a more potent force that can confront the exigencies of now and the challenges of tomorrow. A new middle passage is emerging; one underpinned by trade, investment, and socio-cultural exchange, correcting the ills of slavery and fragmentation. We are supporting African investors to build ports, roads and power plants in the Caribbean; we are promoting cross acquisition of banks. Afreximbank is proud to be home to numerous interns from the Caribbean since 2021.
Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, Distinguished Ladies, and Gentlemen, as we prepare to face the new world of opportunities, challenges, and threats over the next 30 years, we do so on a stronger footing of over 60 participating States whose aspirations are our responsibilities. We do so as a stronger institution that looks forward to another 30 years with enthusiasm. The Bank has remained financially strong. In the past 30 years, it has disbursed over 100 billion US dollars. Every African must be proud that a seed sown 30 years ago with less than 150 million US dollars in total assets and almost an equal amount of equity has blossomed into an institution with about 32 billion US dollars in total assets and guarantees and about 6 billion US dollars in Shareholders’ funds. An institution that posted just about 12 million US dollars in total revenues in 1995 returned over 1.5 billion in revenues in 2022. These results are indicative of opportunities in Africa; they prove without doubt that development work can be done profitably. Again, they validate the assumptions of the founding fathers of the Bank 30 years ago.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it took the Bank 30 years to reach 30 billion in total assets and guarantee; I look ahead with confidence and declare that the Bank will double its size to 60 billion in less than 6 years. I make this projection with faith in your trust and confidence, and also because we commence the journey into the next 30 years on a platform of a “mother” that has birthed many off-springs, offering services from project preparation to market access services, operating in our new larger continent of Afri-Caribbean.
Today, Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, we formally unveil the Afreximbank Group, providing the platform for the emergence of a Trade and Project Finance Supermarket the founders of the Bank aspired for. In that regard, may I introduce Afreximbank’s subsidiaries and special initiatives:
- Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), an impact equity fund created to provide long term funding for export manufacturing, intra-Africa trade and value-added services.
- AfrexInsure, Afreximbank’s insurance management subsidiary
- the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a payment infrastructure provider that promotes cross-border payments for goods and services in Africa’s 42 currencies.
- the Afreximbank’s Customer Due Diligence Repository Platform, also called the MANSA Initiative, that is dealing with the challenges of compliance.
- Afreximbank’s Project Preparation Fund (PPF) to deal with the funding constraints to the preparation of bankable strategic development projects.
- The Africa Credit Opportunity Fund (ACOF), a credit fund that supports trade growth in Africa through investing in credit instruments.
- African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) to provide world-class healthcare services across the continent,
- African Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC)to ensure that “made in Africa” goods meet the required health and safety standards in global markets.
Before I close, permit me to remind us that although we celebrate 30 years today, the journey to the next 30 years will require that we win the battle against those who are doing everything to weaken African multilateral institutions. We may say no to them and ensure we do not willing tools in destroying what Africa’s pioneer leaders toiled to build.
Your Excellencies, a celebration of 30 years would not have been possible without the enduring foundation laid by many. Permit me, therefore, to pay special tribute to the shareholders, our Board and the pioneer President, Mr Christopher Edordu, and his successor Mr Jean Louis Ekra. Thank you all for making this possible. It is a day like this that we must remember the vision, courage and hardwork of the architect of Afreximbank project, the late Dr Babacar Ndiaye. May his soul rest in peace. Also present here are many of the Bank’s Pioneer staff and persons who crafted the foundation documents for the establishment of this institution. While I am unable to mention your names individually, I do know that your work has been engraved in the history books of the Bank. We, the African people, remain indebted to you, including to those who have left this world, especially JWT Otieno and Mr. Philip Kamau.
Special thanks to our partner institutions, to our partner DFIs and commercial banks from Africa and the world for making this 30-year journey impactful.
In a special way, I extend our utmost gratitude to His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his government and the people of Ghana for the warm hospitality and strong partnership with the Bank and, particularly for hosting Afreximbank’s 30th Anniversary celebration. The Bank is also grateful to the Heads of State, Prime Ministers, their representatives, former Presidents, and Vice Presidents for gracing this auspicious occasion. Special thanks are also due to the Commissioners of the African Union Commission, the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, the CEO of AU NEPAD, the Executive Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa as well as leaders of African and international policy institutions. To our private sector partners, we say thank you for being strong and reliable friends of Afreximbank.
I also recognise my colleagues who, without hesitation, assumed the baton in the continent’s development race infusing and exerting new energy and momentum into the race. And finally, my contribution to the job of
“Delivering the vision and Building Prosperity for Africans would have been much more difficult without the support, love and understanding of my “Rock of Gibraltar; my dear wife, Chinelo and my lovely daughters.”
To you all, I say “Medaase” [thank You]. I thank you for your kind attention.
Prof Benedict Oramah
President and Chairman of the Board of Directors
