Cairo, Egypt || Shareholders of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have set an ambitious target of increasing the bank's balance sheet to $250 billion within 10 years.
Afreximbank President George Allombi said this in his inaugural speech in Cairo, Egypt, reaffirming his confidence in Africa's ability to achieve the target.
“When we consulted leaders, including Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is both a staunch supporter and a major shareholder, they challenged us to aim for $350 billion,” Allomby said. “This challenge is not about numbers; it is a call for greater impact.”
“Only a strong, well-capitalized institution can make the scale of investment needed to transform Africa’s trade and development landscape,” he said. “As we invest in export processing zones, we must face critics who misunderstand our mission. Ignore them. Until we process, nothing will change. To do this, Africa must have a strong financial institution. You have built one, and we will make it stronger,” he said.
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He outlined his strategic priorities for the next five to ten years. The first, he said, is to promote value addition and strategic mineral processing. He declared, “We will no longer finance the export of Africa's raw assets.” “No more raw Nigerian bauxite, no raw Cameroonian or South African manganese. We will focus on domestic processing.” He stressed that processing minerals locally will create jobs, increase foreign exchange earnings and promote infrastructure development. “We will establish a strategic minerals development program to finance the entire value chains from extraction to the manufacturing of refined and finished goods,” he said, pledging to collaborate with the African Finance Corporation and the Trade and Development Bank in Nairobi to achieve this.
The second focus, he said, is to deepen intra-African trade and regional integration. “Our value addition agenda will be successful only if we secure markets for the goods we produce,” he said. They promised to work with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to remove trade barriers and promote the free movement of goods, services, capital and people across Africa. In a clear message to governments, he said, “Do not fear your own people. Africans fear Africans more than foreigners. Open your borders. Your people will do you no harm.”
Elombi's third priority is to develop trade-enabling infrastructure. “We cannot do business without infrastructure,” he said, stressing the need for investment in roads, railways, ports, pipelines, energy and logistics centres. They announced plans to leverage existing assets across borders to create a shared, integrated infrastructure ecosystem for trade, reducing costs and boosting connectivity. He also underlined the importance of embracing digital and technological innovation. “Africa must not be left behind,” he said, pledging investment in digital infrastructure, e-commerce platforms, payment systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning. He hinted at the pursuit of “a pan-African digital currency” and called for global African capital mobilization to finance development.
Elombi stressed that mobilizing global African resources and capital, whether held by the diaspora, sovereign wealth funds or private African businesses, was essential for development. “This is not just about finance; it is about ownership. It is about redefining the African development story. This is the time to work for Africa's wealth, wherever it is, for our own future,” he said.
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Turning to Afreximbank’s legacy, Elombi said the institution created 32 years ago has achieved remarkable growth. “Over the past 10 years, total assets and guarantees have grown more than eightfold to $43.5 billion,” he said. Total revenue is expected to grow sevenfold to $3.2 billion, he said, while net income is expected to reach $1 billion by the end of 2024, representing a 700 percent increase over a decade. The bank's total capital increased from $1 billion in 2015 to $7.5 billion in 2024, with callable capital increasing from $450 million to $4.5 billion. He also highlighted the creation of subsidiaries such as the Export Development Fund in Africa and others based in Rwanda, which he said are becoming additional sources of revenue. Contrary to some critics, he argued, these subsidiaries are “not wasting money” but rather “building the capital base needed for larger interventions.”
Elombi reaffirmed his commitment to preserving and deepening these achievements. “Our mission is to change the structure of African trade,” he said. “Africa's trade is too dependent on commodity exports, and that must change. We must process, we must produce. Unless we produce, we will not trade among ourselves, and trade is not the end in itself, it is a means to development.”
