. Assures of deeper regional integration
To deepen regional integration, the newly appointed President of Afreximbank, Dr George Elombi, has urged African leaders, including Nigeria, to open their borders to neighbouring countries to promote the seamless movement of goods and people across the continent.
In his inaugural address at the just concluded Afreximbank Legacy Conference and Investiture ceremony held in Cairo over the weekend, Elombi said Afreximbank would intensify efforts to dismantle trade barriers, strengthen cross-border infrastructure, and foster freer movement within Africa.
“We want to emphasise people. There are a lot of government representatives here; fear not, your people. They are not harmful; you need them across the borders. African states fear African people more than they fear foreigners.”
Elombi criticised the continent’s restrictive visa regimes, arguing that the lack of free movement undermines economic growth and regional cooperation. He cited the historic openness of the Nigeria–Cameroon border, noting that despite Nigeria’s size, it has not overwhelmed its smaller neighbour. “That border has been open since colonial times. On independence, the states resolved to keep it open. Today, Nigeria is a massive elephant sitting close to Cameroon, but Nigerians have not invaded Cameroon in their numbers,” he said.
According to Elombi, ensuring the free flow of labour and people is critical to Afreximbank’s broader agenda of driving infrastructure development and industrial processing across Africa.
“Only this free flow of labour is going to help Afreximbank achieve the infrastructure and processing agenda we have,” he asserted. Elombi, who was sworn in as the fourth President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, taking over from Prof. Benedict Oramah as head of the African Multilateral Finance Institution at the weekend, also expressed his unwavering commitment to carrying forward the legacy of the Bank’s past, to deepening impact, strengthening partnerships, and continuing the mission of building an Africa that trades with itself and thrives on its own terms.
He pointed out that the structure of global trade was unfavourable to Africa and therefore, had to change as it was too dependent on the export of commodities, saying: “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.”
President Elombi also announced that, over the next five to ten years, he would prioritise sectors he believed would have the most significant and sustained impact on Africa’s trade and wellbeing, including promoting and accelerating value addition and strategic minerals processing to curb the export of raw potential.
“Afreximbank will therefore create a new, high-impact financing window, specifically for projects that process raw minerals into semi-finished goods or finished goods. We will establish a Strategic Minerals Development Programme to finance entire value chains, from extraction and refining to manufacturing finished components, capturing much more value here at home and creating high-skilled jobs for our people.”
Elombi added that Afreximbank would prioritise the deepening of intra-African trade and regional integration as the success of its value addition agenda would ultimately depend on its ability to secure markets for the goods produced.
“We will intensify efforts to break down trade barriers, strengthen cross-border infrastructure, and foster seamless movement of goods, services, people, and capital across our continent. “Afreximbank will therefore continue to play a catalytic role in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by driving forward key programmes and initiatives developed over the past decade and by introducing new, targeted interventions, where necessary, to accelerate progress.”
Other priorities outlined by Dr Elombi include catalysing and building critical trade-enabling infrastructure; leveraging innovation and digital technology, including exploring the creation of a Pan-African Digital Currency; strengthening financial integration and innovation across the continent; and mobilising global African capital.
The bank would also prioritise its financial strength in recognition that “only a strong and well-capitalised institution can make the scale of interventions required to transform Africa’s trade and development landscape,” Elombi said.
