The African Export-Import Bank will this week appoint a new president after a credit downgrade by Fitch Ratings this month sparked heightened scrutiny of the way the continent’s main trade lender operates.
Shareholders will pick a new leader on Saturday, at the end of this week’s gathering in Abuja. The outgoing president, Nigerian banker Benedict Oramah, has led the institution since 2015, after rising to the top job over a two-decade career. He helped to raise Afreximbank’s assets to $40 billion last December, from under $6 billion at the end of 2014.
The next leader will face the challenge of restoring confidence in the lender after a scathing Fitch assessment that said it had “weak risk management policies” and faced “high solvency risks.” The downgrade to a notch above junk was based on loans extended to countries that have defaulted on their obligations. The bank said Fitch’s analysis was “erroneous.”