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Afreximbank celebrates outgoing President/ Chairman
African Export-import Bank, Afreximbank, in Cairo, Egypt, marked the end of the tenure of Prof. Benedict Okey Oramah as its President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, with a legacy conference where the outgoing President announced that he made the promotion of intra-African trade and investment the arrowhead of the Bank’s strategy when he took office because of a conviction that was the only viable path forward for Africa’s development and economic emancipation. The Farewell conference, attended by more than 2,000 guests, attracted heads of state, former heads of state, other government leaders and representatives from across Africa and the Caribbean, top African business leaders, all former Afreximbank Presidents, Afreximbank President designate, members of the Bank’s Board of Directors, shareholders, serving and former staff members, friends and family of Prof. Oramah and Afreximbank as well as a host of other dignitaries. In a farewell address, Prof. Oramah stated: “Our philosophy was borne out of the conviction that the only viable path forward for Africa’s development and economic emancipation was one that would aggressively reverse-engineer the colonial strategy of ‘divide-and-rule’ and ‘divide-and-conquer’ that had, for decades, pinned Africa and people of African descent down in the dustbin of despair and desperation.”
“Accordingly, our philosophy was that Africa’s development dynamo must be powered from within, as hundreds of years of history, had shown us that external interests had been mostly predatory and parasitic, unless engaged from a position of strength and purpose,” he explained. Prof. Oramah added that, because Afreximbank fought on all fronts, “we can point to tangible differences the Bank has made; we can now point to those things that now exist, those new institutional arrangements and interventions that have now joined as formidable forces in Africa’s armoury in its fight towards true self-determination – those things that we look up to today, many of which were mere hopes and aspirations, 10 years ago”. Earlier, Dr. George Elombi, President Designate of Afreximbank, described Prof. Oramah as “one of the few in the world, the 0.8 per cent, who combines vision and execution”, saying that, under his leadership, Afreximbank and its willing partners built a solid foundation for enhancing intra-African trade and industrial development. Instruments were created to dismantle the obstacles that have hindered Africa’s progress for nearly seven decades since Africa’s independence. He confronted the challenges of Africa’s industrial underdevelopment head-on, building on the work of those who came before him,” said Dr. Elombi.
He said that Afreximbank was now one of the key multilateral financial institutions leading Africa’s development efforts, particularly in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and transforming the continent’s industrial landscape, adding, “Oramah has turned decades and centuries-old political wishes into tangible gains for all Africans.” Prof. Oramah’s 10-year tenure, which began in September 2015, saw Afreximbank’s balance sheet and guarantees grow almost eight-fold, from US$6 billion when he took office to almost US$44 billion as at September 2025. It also saw the introduction and implementation of far-reaching products, programmes and initiatives specifically designed to address the challenges facing Africa’s trade and economic growth, helping to cement Afreximbank’s place as Africa’s foremost trade finance institution. During his time, Afreximbank’s support played a significant role in putting the implementation of the AfCFTA ahead of schedule. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which it has backed with a $3 billion clearing and settlement facility, has become operational in 20 countries and has made it possible for African countries to trade across borders in their own local currencies.
The AfCFTA Adjustment Funds, supported by Afreximbank with a US$1 billion commitment and a partnership with the AfCFTA Secretariat, is enabling AFCFTA participating states to adjust in an orderly manner to the new trading regime. The biennial Intra-African Trade Fair, introduced by Afreximbank in 2018, is tackling the challenge of limited access to trade and investment information across Africa and has, in its four editions, attracted over $170 billion in trade and investment deals and 180,000 visitors. Moreover, the Bank’s digital platform, the Africa Trade Gateway, is using digital technology to break down information barriers, while the Afreximbank Africa Trade Centres, which have sprung up across the continent, are providing solid platforms for intra-African trade and investment information. In the area of standards, through the Bank’s testing and certification centres, about 500 standards for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, agriculture, automobiles, textiles, etc. have been harmonised, enabling smoother intra-African trade as the Bank continues to build more centres across Africa to ensure that there is infrastructure to implement the standards it has helped to harmonise. Working with the AFCFTA Secretariat and COMESA, Afreximbank launched the African Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme, supported by US$1 billion in guarantee limits, which addresses the transit barriers to the movement of goods across borders.
In addition, Afreximbank is supporting the development o f industrial parks and special economic zones across Africa, creating exports where none existed, including the emergence of heavy industries, such as the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant in Nigeria. Also, importantly, the Bank’s work has ignited socio-cultural and economic ties between Africa and the CARICOM and the broader African diaspora and its execution of African Medical Centre of Excellence projects has paved the way for quality healthcare to become accessible to many Africans. Other significant accomplishments include the Bank’s COVID-19 intervention when it disbursed over US$10 billion to enable Africa to fend for itself during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Bank also put up $2 billion that enabled Africa and the Caribbean to procure COVID-19 vaccines.
Additionally, under President Oramah, Afreximbank recently launched the African Trade and Distribution Company (ATDC), an institution designed to tackle logistical hurdles in cross-border trade within the continent. The legacy conference also featured tributes delivered by Afreximbank staff, members of the business community, political leaders, friends and other people from various walks of life who were impacted by the work of Prof. Oramah.
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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