New Africa Trade Bank boss defends sovereignty, unveils plan for factories

An illustrative photo of the new African Export-Import Bank President George Elombi.

The new president of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), George Elombi, on Saturday pledged a strategic pivot away from financing raw material exports and toward building factories and jobs within Africa, while launching a fierce defence of the lender's sovereignty against what he termed "increasingly hostile" external attacks.

In his inaugural speech after assuming office, Elombi outlined an ambitious plan focused on financing local processing zones, developing a pan-African stablecoin, and mobilising domestic capital, even as he hit out at unnamed critics for what he described as a "coordinated attack on African sovereignty."

The shift comes at a time when some global rating agencies have issued adverse assessments of the bank, questioning its strategic direction.

Elombi appeared to directly address these concerns, asserting that the criticism was not due to failure but to the bank's success in providing an alternative to traditional Western and multilateral lenders.

"What is strange and ironical is that these attacks are not because we fail or are seen as another African failure. It is because we are successful. The more relevant we become, the more disruptive we are considered to be in some quarters," he stated.

He forcefully rejected accusations of "mission drift," stating the bank's founding charter mandates it to change the structure of Africa's trade. "This structural transformation... is not mission drift; it is mission delivery," Elombi asserted.

He issued a stark warning about the nature of the criticisms, emphasising their targeted nature. "It is not of a general nature. It is targeted at African multilateral institutions owned and controlled by Africans. The attacks have become increasingly hostile," he said, highlighting that the bank's preferred creditor status is enshrined in an international treaty signed by all member states.

Elombi, a veteran of the bank, takes the helm from Prof Benedict Oramah, who exited after a ten-year reign that saw Afreximbank's assets surge to $43.5 billion.

Elombi also countered arguments about the cost of Afreximbank's loans compared to "concessional" alternatives, pointing to what he called the hidden costs of traditional development finance. "What they have failed to point out is the actual cost of their so-called concessional loans?" he asked, listing "conditionalities that cause job losses" and "reforms that restrict or prevent public investments in productive sectors."

Structural adjustment programmes from Bretton Woods institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have long been criticized for triggering unemployment and social unrest, with the recent protests in Kenya being a latest example.

On his strategic vision, Elombi was unequivocal: "Our mission is therefore to transform the structure of that trade. To change the structure, we must process. We must produce. Unless we produce, we cannot trade."

A key operational focus will be financing specialised economic zones and local processing hubs, building on successes in Benin and Togo where support for industrial platforms boosted manufactured exports and created thousands of jobs.

"We will focus on developing strategic industries that can drive industrialisation and job creation," he said, announcing a new financing window for projects that process raw minerals. "Instead of simply exporting raw lithium from the Democratic Republic of Congo... we will finance factories to produce lithium-ion batteries locally."

To achieve this scale, Elombi emphasised collaboration, highlighting the bank's "enormous strategic" partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other members of the African Alliance of Multilateral Financial Institutions. "By strengthening these alliances, we aim to build a cohesive African financial ecosystem," he said.

Capital mobilisation is central to his plan. "We will explore all avenues – new shareholder equity, retained earnings, co-lending frameworks, and asset management – to multiply the resources we can bring to Africa," Elombi stated, noting the goal to grow the bank's balance sheet to $350 billion.

He announced a drive to reconnect African wealth with African development. "Too often, African wealth... is invested elsewhere in the world. We will intensify efforts to connect this vast pool of capital... back to Africa's growth," he said, proposing a "Pan-African Sovereign Wealth Virtual Fund Network."

Elombi, a veteran of the bank, was previously its Executive Vice President for Governance, Legal, and Corporate Services.

He concluded by framing the challenge as a pivotal moment for the continent: "It is time for Africa's wealth—wherever it resides—to work for Africa's future."