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This article was produced with the support of Afreximbank
When Benedict Okechukwu Oramah’s curriculum vitae was sent by his doctoral supervisor to Christopher Edordu, who would become the pioneer President of Afreximbank no one knew how the story would unfold.
No one could have foretold that he was going to have a three decade career that would lead him to the apex of one of Africa’s most important multilateral finance institutions.
Edordu was then Managing Director of NEXIM Bank and hiring Oramah was, in many ways, a case of the scriptural last becoming the first as Edordu recalls it.
“I remember the young man coming to me from his doctoral supervisor, to ask if I was willing to consider him for a place in the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) in 1992 and this was after we had already concluded recruitment.”
Edordu would hire him based on his credentials and when he invited a crop of high performers at NEXIM to join him at the nascent Afreximbank, Oramah was enthusiastic.
Edordu continues his story. “At the beginning, Afreximbank was an organization that was not sought after because there were many negative aspects of developing African institutions at the time. But when we offered Okey a place, he jumped at it and along with others we battled to make the bank what it is today, not just a financial institution but a tool of African development.”
After 32 years in the saddle, Oramah bows out in a cloud of adulation and honour. At the 32nd Annual meetings of the bank, speaker after speaker from Africa to the Caribbean, North America to Asia spoke of his visionary and inspiring leadership during his ten years at the helm during which he not only turned the bank into one of the most significant promoters of trade and structured financing in Africa, he also facilitated a synergistic handshake with the CARICOM nations and battled a pandemic to a standstill.
On the eve of his departure on Friday June 27, 2025 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria conferred on Professor Benedict Oramah, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, the nation’s second highest national honour in recognition of his contributions not just to Africa but to Nigeria which has received over $52bn in financing support from the bank and currently hosts an Afreximbank African Trade Center (AATC), an African Quality Assurance Center (AQAC) and the first of Afreximbank’s Medical Centers of Excellence amongst others.
