As Oramah concludes his transformative decade as President and Chairman of Afreximbank, Africa stands visibly reshaped by a visionary who has breathed new life into Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of a united and economically integrated continent.
Though never a head of state, Oramah’s legacy stands shoulder to shoulder with the continent’s greatest Pan-Africanist leaders — Haile Selassie, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere, and Muammar Gaddafi.
Over the past decade, Oramah has redefined economic Pan-Africanism — his vision, like Nkrumah’s, knows no borders. Yet while Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism was rooted in political liberation, Oramah’s has been anchored in economic emancipation, transforming the ideal of continental integration from rhetoric into robust financial architecture. In doing so, he has earned a rightful place among the foremost architects of Africa’s post-liberation era.
Under his stewardship, Afreximbank has evolved into Africa’s foremost trade finance institution, driving trade, investment, and industrialization across the continent. Oramah’s visionary leadership has laid the foundation for a new era of African economic self-determination.
Afreximbank: Financing Africa’s Boldest Economic Project
One of Oramah’s most enduring legacies is Afreximbank’s pivotal role in driving the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) — arguably Africa’s boldest integration effort since the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963.
It is worth recalling that the OAU organized the First All-Africa Trade Fair in Nairobi in 1971, but logistical and financial challenges prevented its continuation. Determined to revive that spirit of continental exchange, Oramah reinvented and resurrected the idea in the form of the biennial Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) in 2018, signaling the rebirth of Africa’s premier marketplace.
Since then, the IATF has evolved into a dynamic platform connecting African businesses, investors, and policymakers — generating about US$50 billion in 2025 alone and an estimated US$170 billion in trade and investment deals to date. It has firmly cemented its place as a catalyst for intra-African commerce, industrial cooperation, and continental integration.
Under Oramah, Afreximbank also designed and operationalized the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) — a groundbreaking platform that enables trade in local currencies, reducing dependence on foreign currencies and advancing Nkrumah’s dream of African financial sovereignty.
Equally transformative is the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, established under Oramah’s direction to support AfCFTA State Parties and businesses in adapting to liberalized trade. With an initial capitalization of US$1 billion, the Fund ensures the AfCFTA is financially viable and inclusive.
Between 2015 and 2025, Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees rose more than eightfold to US$43.5 billion — a remarkable transformation that mirrors Oramah’s strategic foresight and the Bank’s evolution from a trade financier into a continental driver of industrialization and self-reliance.
Beyond trade and finance, Oramah’s vision extended to Africa’s creative economy. Through the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX), he championed the continent’s cultural industries — from Nollywood to Afrobeats — as vital engines of growth and youth advancement.
Through such landmark initiatives, Oramah infused Pan-African ideals with real economic substance — harmonizing enterprise development with cultural renaissance in a way few technocrats or policymakers have ever achieved.
Global Africa: Reconnecting the Continent with Its Sixth Region
At the heart of Oramah’s Pan-African philosophy lies his bold vision of Global Africa — the belief that Africa’s destiny is inseparable from that of its diaspora. For Oramah, the Caribbean and the African diaspora are not distant relatives but Africa’s Sixth Region, the missing link in its political and economic renaissance.
Under his leadership, Afreximbank became the first African financial institution to make this vision real, extending its operations to the Caribbean, working with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Through the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF), Oramah championed a new architecture of Afro-Caribbean cooperation.
These partnerships now empower African and Caribbean entrepreneurs to trade directly and invest across continents in key sectors such as the creative economy, renewable energy, digital innovation, and the blue economy. In doing so, Oramah transformed the poetic ideal of a Global Africa into a functional and enduring economic framework — one that reconnects shared heritage with shared prosperity.
As he once declared, “Global Africa is not an aspiration; it is an economic necessity.”
The Legacy of the Audacious Man
When Nkrumah warned that “political independence is meaningless without economic independence,” he was naming the very challenge Oramah would take up six decades later. Nkrumah envisioned an Africa united and free from colonial borders; Oramah has built the financial architecture to make that vision a reality.
In Oramah, Africa has witnessed a 21st-century reincarnation of Nkrumah — an architect of economic liberation who built bridges of trade, proving that Pan-Africanism is no longer a relic of liberation history but a viable economic agenda for the 21st century.
At last Friday’s Afreximbank Farewell Conference in Cairo, speaker after speaker eulogized Oramah for transforming the Bank into a continental powerhouse and inspiring a generation of African policymakers, bankers, and entrepreneurs to pursue bold, homegrown prosperity.
Oramah’s accolades are many — Forbes Africa Person of the Year (2023), African Banker of the Year (2017 & 2022), and Nigeria’s second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) — yet his greatest legacy is intangible: the rekindled belief in Africa’s capacity to finance, trade, and transform itself.
As he passes the baton to Dr. George Elombi, Oramah leaves behind not just a bank, but a movement — a testament to the enduring truth that Africa’s economic freedom, like its political independence, must be built by Africans, for Africans, and with African resources.
Indeed, like Nkrumah before him, Benedict Oramah stands as the Father of Modern Economic Pan-Africanism — the visionary who transformed Africa’s age-old dream of integration into a living, financial reality.
