When Dr George Elombi assumed office as President of the African Export-Import Bank in 2025, he did so having spent nearly three decades helping to build the very institution he now leads. His elevation, the fourth presidency in Afreximbank’s history, marked the culmination of a remarkable insider’s ascent and a vote of confidence in continuity at one of Africa’s most important multilateral lenders.
A Cameroonian by birth, Elombi trained first as a lawyer, earning a maîtrise-en-droit from the University of Yaoundé before a Master of Laws and a PhD in commercial arbitration from the London School of Economics. He lectured at the University of Hull before joining Afreximbank in 1996 as a legal officer, the first step in a career that would carry him through almost every tier of the organisation. He rose to chief legal officer, executive secretary, and from 2015 Executive Vice President for Governance, Legal and Corporate Services, becoming one of the bank’s principal architects. When COVID-19 struck, he chaired the emergency committee that mobilised more than $2 billion for African and Caribbean vaccine access; by April 2025 he had helped raise some $3.6 billion in equity.
An outspoken advocate for African financial sovereignty, arguing the continent is “too big to be judged by non-African rating agencies”, and honoured as a Knight of Cameroon’s Order of Valour, Elombi embodies the institution-builder’s creed: that Africa’s prosperity depends on the institutions Africans build for themselves.
