Contributors

Benedict Okechukwu Oramah

President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank

Prof. Benedict O. Oramah is the President and Chairman the Board of Directors of African Export Import Bank (“Afreximbank or the Bank”). As the President of Afreximbank, Prof. Oramah has grown the Bank significantly and improved its global appeal and relevance.   

The Bank is playing a key role in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement which is the most significant trade and development initiative in Africa for decades. In support of the AfCFTA, Afreximbank, under the leadership of Prof. Oramah championed the creation of very innovative digital platforms that will boost intra-regional trade and investments by revolutionizing cross border payments and improving access to quality trade information. These include the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (the “PAPSS”), a Trade Information Platform and MANSA, which is a repository platform that provides a single source of primary data required for the conduct of customer due diligence on African entities 

Prof. Oramah is one of the four Principals of the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) and under his leadership, Afreximbank played a pivotal role that made it possible for the continent to procure 400 million doses of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, by providing a US$ 2 billion Advanced Procurement Commitment (APC) guarantee to the vaccine manufacturer, on behalf of African countries.  

As a recognition for his achievements, Prof. Oramah has received several honors and awards including being listed in the 100 most influential Africans by New African Magazine in 2019, 2020 and 2021.  He was also listed by Jeune Afrique among the top 100 Influential Africans. In 2017 Prof. Oramah was voted African Banker of the year by the African Banker magazine. He also received the New York University Africa Leadership Award in 2018. He sits on the Boards of many organisations and also chairs the Boards of the Funds for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). Prof. Oramah has written over 50 articles and papers, authored books and contributed chapters in several books.