H.E. Professor Benedict Oramah

President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, African Export-Import Bank

Bio Current as of November 12, 2020

Prof. Oramah has been President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank since September 2015.

Prior to this, he was Executive Vice President responsible for Business Development & Corporate Banking (October 2008 – September 2015), specifically supervising Trade Finance, Project & Export Development Finance, Syndications & Specialized Finance, and Corporate Finance & Advisory Services. He also supervised the Research and Strategy functions of the Bank. 

He holds an Advanced Management Certificate from Columbia University, M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degrees in Agricultural Economics from Obafemi Awolowo University, and a B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ibadan. On 22 July 2018, he was decorated Professor of International Trade and Finance by Adeleke University, Nigeria.

Prof. Oramah currently serves on the Practitioner Advisory Board of the Institute for Trade and Innovation (IfTI) of Offenburg University, Gengenbach, Germany. He is also a Member of the Emerging Markets Advisory Council of the Institute of International Finance; an Executive Committee Member of the Factors Chain International (FCI); a member of the Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO); and a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of African Trade (JAT). 

Professor Oramah has won several awards, including the Afreximbank Outstanding Staff Award (2010); the 2017 Banker of the Year Award of the African Banker and the Africa House Leadership Award of the New York University (2018).

As a prolific writer, he recently published a book entitled: ‘Foundations of Structured Trade Finance’, contributed a chapter on Export Credit Arrangements in Capital-Scarce Developing Economies in the Hand Book of Global Trade Policy. He has also authored Chapters in several other books and written over 40 professional/scholarly articles on a wide range of African economic, trade and trade finance issues. He has spoken at several trade and trade finance conferences worldwide. 

He is married with three children.