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At the annual Pan-African Business and Development Awards held in June, the Nigerian Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Olawale Edun, described the outgoing President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Professor Benedict Okechukwu (Okey) Oramah, as “a true son of the soil” whose leadership had fundamentally reshaped trade and development across Africa. Those words capture accurately and succinctly the lifework of Okey Oramah, who turns 64 on Thursday, 24 July.
Only recently, the President of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, conferred on Oramah the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). Both the accolade and the award, amongst several others, mark a well-deserved recognition of and fitting conclusion to a sterling career in public management and international finance for one of Africa’s finest and most renowned professionals.
Rarely is the conferment of a national honour in Nigeria without a measure of controversy trailing the award. Eligibility, timeliness, or alignment with the public mood or popular opinion are some of the usual points of disagreement. On none of these scores can Professor Oramah’s award be questioned or found wanting. Rather, the bestowal has been universally acclaimed far and wide. In this particular instance, it is clearly manifest that this is one honour that fits perfectly.
Exceptionally brilliant, strategic, brave, energetic, compassionate, and global with the utmost passion for the advancement of trade and industry in Africa at heart, Okey Oramah has been aptly described as the calm in the global business storm, and he has continued to play that tough role with a vigour that is devoid of fuss. No matter what it takes him and his company, wherever in the world, at any point, in good and bad times, the outgoing President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank has made it an obligation to uplift, prosper, and unite Africa. In this regard, he turned a vocation into a calling, which he pursued with maximum zeal.
Within ten years, Okey Oramah successfully led Afreximbank in fulfilling its mandate of financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade far beyond the vision of the progenitors of the bank. Under his leadership, Afreximbank has made significant strides in addressing major challenges hindering the growth of individual African countries and overcoming obstacles to continental trade and industrial development. A good example is Afreximbank and the African Union’s collaborative launch of the Pan African Settlement System (PAPSS), a centralised financial infrastructure designed to facilitate secure, efficient, and cost-effective cross-border payments across Africa.
PAPSS is designed to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by promoting intra-African trade, lowering transaction costs, and improving liquidity within the continent’s financial ecosystem. From West Africa to East Africa, North Africa, South Africa, and Central Africa, Afreximbank has positively impacted its 54 member states, elevating their economies significantly.
As morning shows the day, Okey Oramah’s life trajectory bore early imprints of the full and rousing blossoming that was to later unfold. Born in Ahoada in the Niger Delta of Nigeria on 24 July 1961 and schooled in Oba, near the Eastern Nigeria commercial heartland of Onitsha, Okey Oramah went on to round off his formal education at two prestigious universities in Western Nigeria—Ibadan and Ife. Earning his degrees, up to the doctorate level, in these citadels of learning, he thus prepared himself as a well-rounded Nigerian intellect before being thrown into the vortex of African continental affairs.
The youngest of the four children of Chief Lazarus A. and Francisca U. Oramah of Nnokwa in Idemili South Local Government of Anambra State, Okey Oramah also holds an Advanced Management Certificate from the Columbia Business School, New York. This, no doubt, further enabled him to stake a claim as a world-class professional and global citizen. In 2018, he was appointed a professor of international trade and finance at the Adeleke University in Ede, Osun State, Nigeria. His exemplary educational preparation has apparently stood him in good stead, as his stellar performance at Afreximbank and the glowing tributes attendant upon his progression to retirement clearly attest.
Okey Oramah began his professional career at the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) in 1992 as an assistant manager. In March 1994, he joined Afreximbank as one of its foundation employees. His thirty-one years at the Bank, which saw him attain the pinnacle of the institution, have made him a mobile encyclopaedia of African finance and a global authority in money matters. He has served in various roles at Afreximbank, including as Chief Analyst, Assistant Director in 1998, Deputy Director in 2001, and substantive Director of the Planning and Business Development Department in 2004. He was promoted to senior director in 2007 and appointed executive vice president of business development and corporate banking in 2008.
On July 13, 2015, Okey Oramah succeeded the Ivorian, Jean-Louis Ekra, as the third president and chairman of the board of directors of Afreximbank. His outstanding performance during his first term won him a second five-year term in 2020, from which he would retire gracefully in September. He is to be succeeded by George Elombi, a Cameroonian.
Under his leadership, Afreximbank has evolved into a conglomerate that encompasses the main bank, its impact fund subsidiary, the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), and its insurance management arm, AfrexInsure. The group has also expanded to spin off several strategic subsidiaries and initiatives, including MANSA, a repository platform for customer due diligence on African entities; the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS); Creative African Nexus (CANEX); the Afreximbank African Trade Centre (AATC); the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE); the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF); and the Africa Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC). During his tenure, the bank’s balance sheet assets grew from $5 billion in 2015 to $37 billion in 2023.
By the end of 2024, Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees reached $40.1 billion, with shareholder funds amounting to $7.2 billion. Between 2016 and 2022, the Bank disbursed over $86 billion to support African economies. In addition, from 2020 to 2022, it provided approximately $50 billion on a revolving basis to help African nations manage the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis and drive economic recovery across the continent.
It was Okey Oramah’s financial engineering during the COVID-19 pandemic that was, however, to win him a place in the pantheon of esteemed global leaders. His frontline role during the pandemic, which erupted at the outset of his second term, marked him out as a committed professional who successfully navigated the critical intersections of social welfare, human security, and public finance, leading to Africa’s unexpected mastering of the much-anticipated ravages of the pandemic.
Okey Oramah’s intervention in continental finance was imbued not just with technical expertise but also with social sensitivity. He recognised that as the world’s last development frontier, Africa’s survival and salvation lie not in aid but in trade. His legacy is in building up the mechanisms for promoting both intra-African trade and Africa’s economic engagement with the rest of the world and strengthening the financial infrastructure to support these. Okey Oramah’s life and career have been devoted to the unsparing pursuit of the vision of African development, to which he brought both the power of agency and the spirit of avatar.
As he turns 64 this Thursday, we wish him a happy birthday. Cheers to many more years of wisdom, leadership, and inspiration.
Olaosebikan, a journalist and public affairs analyst, is the CEO of Midas Communications Ltd., an international public relations firm.
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