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Africa must break free from its reliance on raw material exports and build industrial capacity at scale if it is to achieve true economic sovereignty, the President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) declared on Thursday.
Speaking at a mid-year media briefing at the Afreximbank African Trade Centre in Abuja, Dr George Elombi, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, said the continent could no longer afford a development model built around extraction and the importation of finished goods.
“Africa’s sovereignty will not be secured by exporting more of what we do not process,” Dr Elombi told journalists. “It will be secured when we build the industries that turn African resources into African value. But industrialisation requires capital, and that capital must be accessible on terms that are fair, evidence-based and reflective of Africa’s true potential.”
Dr Elombi said Afreximbank’s mandate was squarely focused on helping the continent transition from commodity dependence to industrial capacity, from fragmented markets to integrated trade, and from external vulnerability to greater African resilience.
Through direct debt financing and its equity vehicle, the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), alongside partnerships with industrial partners including ARISE IIP, the Bank is facilitating the development of multipurpose industrial parks and special economic zones. Strategic investments are being scaled to support minerals processing, agro-processing, automotive manufacturing, textiles and pharmaceuticals, with the aim of building competitive manufacturing hubs and deepening regional production linkages across the continent.
Dr Elombi stressed that fair credit assessment was central to Africa’s sovereignty agenda, noting that credit ratings directly influence how much institutions pay to raise funding and the cost at which they can finance trade, infrastructure and industry.
“When African institutions are assessed properly, they can raise capital more competitively,” he said. “When they raise capital more competitively, they can finance Africa’s industrial growth, and accelerate African trade and job creation.”
The Bank’s recent investment-grade rating from S&P Global Ratings, which assigned a BBB+ long-term and A-2 short-term issuer credit rating, demonstrated the importance of assessing African institutions in their proper context, Dr Elombi said. The rating followed Afreximbank’s strong first-quarter performance in 2026, with total assets and contingencies rising to US$49,4 billion, shareholders’ funds of US$8,6 billion, a capital adequacy ratio of 23 percent and a non-performing loan ratio of 2,40 percent.
He insisted that rating agencies must properly recognise Afreximbank’s treaty-based structure, Preferred Creditor Status, shareholder support and central role in financing African trade, adding that shareholders’ perception of the Bank was driven by conviction and belief in the institution they created, “not just by rating perceptions”.
Despite a complex global environment, Afreximbank has continued to demonstrate strong investor confidence, including through successful Samurai and Panda bond issuances and a US$2 billion equivalent dual-tranche syndicated facility raised in the first quarter of 2026 from 31 lenders across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Dr Elombi warned that industrialisation would only deliver sovereignty if African goods could move across African markets. He said Afreximbank would continue supporting trade-enabling infrastructure, payment systems, logistics corridors and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to reduce barriers hindering intra-African commerce.
“Capital, industry and trade must work together,” he said. “Africa must finance its production, process its resources and move its goods across its own markets. That is how we create value, retain value in Africa and build sovereignty that is practical, not theoretical.”
The President welcomed the idea of a New African Financial Architecture and stressed the urgency of building capacity to mobilise resources from within the continent to support its development.
Looking ahead, Dr Elombi said Afreximbank would remain focused on financing the systems Africa needed to stand more firmly on its own foundations, including industrial capacity, value addition, strategic minerals processing, trade-enabling infrastructure, digital payments, energy security and intra-African trade.
Also present at the briefing were Mr Richman Dzene, Senior Economic Adviser to the Afreximbank President; Ms Anne Ezeh, Director and Global Head of Communications and Events; Mr Kudakwashe Matereke, Director of Regional Operations for the Anglophone West Africa hub; and Mr Alex Epale, Senior Manager of Banking Legal Services.
