Elombi takes over at Afreximbank
Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday October 30, 2025 08:29
In a ceremony on Saturday in Cairo, Egypt, Elombi was formally inaugurated as Afreximbank’s fourth president, taking over from Professor Benedict Oramah. The investiture ceremony was witnessed by over 2,000 guests, including heads of state, former heads of state, government leaders and representatives from across Africa and the Caribbean, top African business leaders, all former Afreximbank presidents, members of the bank’s board of directors, shareholders and others.
Elombi has been with Afreximbank since 1996, joining as a Legal Officer. He rose through the ranks to become Executive Vice President, Governance, Legal and Corporate Services. Over his nearly three decades at the Bank, he has served as Director and Executive Secretary (2010–2015); Deputy Director, Legal Services / Executive Secretary (2008–2010); Chief Legal Officer (2003–2008); and Senior Legal Officer (2001–2003).
Prior to joining Afreximbank, he taught law at the University of Hull, United Kingdom.
Dr. Elombi played a pivotal role in establishing Afreximbank group's structure, including the formation of key subsidiaries that have expanded the Bank's capacity to deliver on its mandate. As Chair of the Emergency Response Committee, he led the Bank's response to the COVID-19 crisis, mobilising over $2 billion for vaccine acquisition and deployment across African and Caribbean nations. Under his supervision of the Equity Mobilisation and Investor Relations department, the Bank's total ordinary equity mobilised amounted to $3.6 billion as at April 2025.
Speaking in his inaugural address, Elombi announced his commitment to carrying forward the legacy of the bank’s past, to deepening impact, strengthening partnerships, and continuing the mission of building an Africa that trades with itself and thrives on its own terms.
“We will intensify efforts to break down trade barriers, strengthen cross-border infrastructure, and foster seamless movement of goods, services, people, and capital across our continent,” he said. “Afreximbank will therefore, continue to play a catalytic role in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by driving forward key programmes and initiatives developed over the past decade and by introducing new, targeted interventions, where necessary, to accelerate progress.”
Other priorities outlined by Elombi include catalysing and building critical trade-enabling infrastructure; leveraging innovation and digital technology, including exploring the creation of a Pan-African Digital Currency, strengthening financial integration and innovation across the continent; and mobilising global African capital.
The new president pointed out that the structure of global trade was unfavourable to Africa and therefore, had to change as it was too dependent on the export of commodities. Elombi announced that, over the next five to 10 years, he would prioritise sectors he believed would have the most significant and sustained impact on Africa’s trade and wellbeing, including promoting and accelerating value addition and strategic minerals processing to curb the export of raw potential.
“Afreximbank will therefore, create a new, high-impact financing window, specifically for projects that process raw minerals into semi-finished goods or finished goods,” he said. “We will establish a Strategic Minerals Development Programme to finance entire value chains, from extraction and refining to manufacturing finished components, capturing much more value here at home and creating high-skilled jobs for our people.”
In the last ten years, Afreximbank has seen its total assets and guarantees grow more than eight-fold between to reach $43.5 billion, while net income amounted to about $1 billion at the end of 2024, an increase of about 700% increase from the level 10 years ago.