By Udeme Akpan
The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of African Export-Import Bank, George Elombi, has said the bank’s 33rd Annual Meetings would focus on intra-African trade, industrialisation and economic integration.
Speaking at the just-concluded Afreximbank Annual Meetings 2026 media briefing, Elombi said the event would attract about 4,000 delegates, including heads of state, ministers, central bank governors, investors, bankers and private sector leaders from Africa and other continents.
According to him, the meetings, scheduled for June 21 to 24 in Egypt, will run under the theme: “Intra-African Trade and Industrialisation: Pathway to Economic Sovereignty.”
He said: “The message is simple: Africa’s next phase of growth must be driven by intra-African trade, by industrial processing and by greater economic integration amongst our countries.”
Elombi said the continent had spent decades building institutions targeted at enhancing continental integration, including the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System.
He said the financial institution was also pushing many relevant projects and programmes, including the Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme, aimed at reducing customs bottlenecks and improving the movement of goods across the continent.
Elombi disclosed that the bank’s total assets had risen to $49.4 billion, while shareholders’ funds stood at about $8.6 billion. He added that the financial institution maintained a capital adequacy ratio of 23 per cent and a non-performing loans ratio of 2.4 per cent.
He said: “So, we have a strong bank. Investor confidence has remained very strong in Afreximbank and we believe that will be the case even in this difficult year of 2026.
“The key discussion would be around how Africa readjusts its own trade direction and its own trade patterns. When the world closes itself to us, we cannot close ourselves off from one another.
“The money is available. What we need is the expertise and the determination of governments to direct investments into priority sectors.”
Also speaking, Hassan Abdalla, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, said Egypt had over the years partnered with Afreximbank in several ways because of a shared vision to promote African trade, industrialisation and regional cooperation.
He said: “Over the years, Afreximbank has established itself as one of the continent’s most impactful financial institutions and a key driver of Africa’s transformation.”
According to him, African nations were gradually building more diversified and resilient economies, adding that the annual meetings would provide another opportunity for meaningful dialogue, regional integration and reforms to the global financial system to better reflect the interests of developing economies.
Abdalla endorsed the theme of the event, stressing that it reflected the growing consciousness among African countries.
He disclosed that organisers were working on logistical, technical, security and protocol arrangements to ensure the meetings met international standards.
“We do not view the Afreximbank annual meetings as merely a conference. We consider it a strategic milestone in our collective journey towards building a more integrated, industrialised, resilient and economically sovereign African continent,” he added.
