We must transform Atlantic Ocean from grave of memory into gateway of prosperity – President Oramah says at ACTIF2025

….Spells out tasks of proposed Global Africa Commission

Remarks delivered by Prof. Benedict O. Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank at the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF2025) in St. George’s, Grenada, July 2025

Salutations

During the last week of June, about eight thousand (8,000) people, mostly from continental Africa, the Caribbean, and the wider Global Africa, assembled in Abuja, Nigeria to attend the 32nd Annual Meetings of Afreximbank Group. They used the occasion to reflect on the place of the people of African descent and the Global South in the rapidly evolving and hostile New World Order.

There was a convergence of views that in a fragmented and crisis-ridden world, the best pathway forward for Africans and the Global
South was through the pursuit of collective selfreliance, with our institutions leading the way. I seize this unique opportunity to extend our gratitude to Member States of the CARICOM for the strong show of support and visibility at the Abuja event. Special thanks to Hon. Prime Ministers Dickon Mitchell, Philip Davis, and Dr. Terrance Michael Drew. We will also like to thank Her Excellency, Secretary General of CARICOM Secretariat, Dr Carla Burnett, the Honourable P. J. Patterson, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Dr Daniel Best, President of Caribbean Development Bank; Mr. Rodinald Soomer, CEO of the Caribbean Development Fund, as well as the high-powered delegations of public officials and corporate leaders from the Caribbean for joining us at the Annual Meetings. I was particularly delighted and highly honoured as it marked my last Afreximbank Group Annual Meetings as the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank.

Today, about a month from the Annual Meetings, many from the Continent have crossed the Atlantic to assemble here in St. George’s, not only to deepen the roots of the seed we planted three (3) years ago in Barbados, but also to put more flesh on the skeleton of the consensus we began to form in Abuja.

Honourable Prime Ministers, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, our gathering here is not ephemeral but rather
rooted in centuries of shared history and ancestry. Here in Grenada, we find traces of the tribes of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.

Interestingly, the Akan folklore, which tells the story of Anansi, the spider, is also told in Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean. These realities remind us constantly that, despite the distance and many years of separation, the cultural ties and shared economic interests run deep and inerasable. Grenada provides the calm and serene environment required to concentrate our minds on the important issues that confront us today.

It is on that note that I welcome you all to the 4th Afri-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum. We are deeply grateful to our dear brother and chief host, The Hon. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, for his bold leadership in agreeing to host this event. We are thankful to him, his Government and the People of Grenada for the warm hospitality we have received since arriving here in St. George’s. I am sure I speak for all of us from the motherland when I say that we feel totally at home here in St. George’s.

Your Excellencies, Hon Ministers, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, this year’s Forum is significant to me personally as it marks the last
time I would be addressing you on this platform as President of Afreximbank. It, therefore, affords me the opportunity to review the progress we have made since we collectively decided to turn the iniquities of the Middle Passage into a shared engine of prosperity, built
by us and for us. In October 2021, when I visited our dear Sister, Hon. Prime Minister Mia Motley in Barbados to discuss the necessity of moving away from political declarations, sloganeering and motivating songs, into concrete action towards realising the long-held aspiration of strengthening Africa-Caribbean trade and investment ties, I left Barbados totally convinced that the key to unlocking that door, jammed for decades, had finally been found. And as I subsequently travelled across CARICOM States, from Grenada to Guyana; St. Lucia to St. Kitts and Nevis; Antigua and Bermuda, to The Bahamas, Belize to St. Vincent and Grenadine and Jamaica to Suriname, I found replicas of the same key, all tuned to the same goal. That is why we have made so much progress within a very short period.

Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in just under four years, our partnership has yielded tangible, historic results. With Jamaica having signed the Partnership Agreement a few weeks ago, thirteen (13) of the fourteen (14)
independent CARICOM Member States are participating in the Partnership Agreement, amongst themselves, and between them and Afreximbank. Eleven of these have ratified the Agreement providing the Bank a solid legal foundation to operate, support, and invest in their economies. This is not merely a bureaucratic milestone. It is a sovereign declaration, that the CARICOM States see in Africa, not just its past, but also its future.

Besides, we have established a fully functional regional office in Barbados, staffed by committed professionals and implementing a
growing pipeline of deals. But we did not stop there. We are building the Afreximbank Africa Trade Centre (AATC) in Bridgetown — an almost 200 million US dollar architectural symbol of the Bank’s deep and unshakable commitment to the Caribbean. With the twin towers, this Centre would host innovation labs, digital trade platforms, SME Incubation Centre, a worldclass hotel, as well as conferencing and training facilities — all designed to make the Centre a hub for Africa-Caribbean trade and investments, bridging the information and financing gap that currently stands in the way of how we do business. So, in less than three (3) years, Afreximbank’s flag would be hoisted above the multi-storey twin towers, reminding us of our beloved Pan-African brave heroes and the clarion call that “we must fight for the now and posterity.”

These notable steps are yielding significant results that touch the lives of our people in various ways. To date, our approved financing
limit to the Caribbean has increased to 3 billion US dollars, following the recent accession of Jamaica to the Partnership Agreement. Deals in
the pipeline presently amount to over 2.5 billion US dollars across various strategic sectors.

Here in Grenada, we are co-financing a worldclass tertiary hospital, estimated at a cost of about 250 million US dollars, which we hope
would convert the country into a regional hub for medical tourism. Also, in Grenada, we are also financing investments by Orascom Group
in the luxury tourism directly boosting Africa Caribbean investments while supporting improvements in tourism infrastructure in the
country. In Saint Lucia, we have helped rebuild schools destroyed by climate events, thereby easing learning conditions for school children. In the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, we are enabling SME development, road infrastructure, and a permanent exhibition centre through multiple transactions amounting to about 500 million US dollars in aggregate terms. In St. Kitts and Nevis, we have unlocked trade finance support through local banks.

In Suriname, Afreximbank is the coordinator and a mandated Lead Arranger of the 1.7 billion US dollar facility to the State Oil Company,
Staatsolie, which would be used to acquire 20% interest in the GranMorgu offshore oil field being operated by Total SA. Afreximbank is
contributing an amount of 500 million US dollars in the deal and expects to be an oil lifter, through its oil trading subsidiary called ATMIN,
which would enable the sale of the crude to refineries in Nigeria and Angola, also financed by Afreximbank.

In Barbados, Afreximbank financed the redevelopment of a sports facility that would also double as an arena for hosting creative events. The Bank is also currently considering deals worth about 400 million US dollars across various sectors of the Barbadian economy.

Honourable Prime Ministers, Your Excellencies, we must shift from the era where our commodities build economies other than ours. In this regard, Afreximbank is proactively supporting Guyana and Suriname, two countries in this region with significant oil and gas discoveries, with financing and technical assistance programmes to support the creation of local capacity, ensuring significant local participation in the oil and gas sector. In Guyana, we are supporting local content development in the oil sector with a proposed 1 billion US dollar facility. In Suriname, we are working with the Government and the State oil company to also launch a multi-billion U.S dollar Local Content Support Programme. Afreximbank would finance and support with proven expertise from the continent especially Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana.

Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in an era of declining development assistance flows to
our countries, coupled with the exit of international banks, and the imperative to build our economies using our resources and institutions, we must develop our own institutions that are capable of financing our development. Consequently, we are working with the CARICOM Secretariat to establish the Caribbean Eximbank, an institution that will catalyse trade and industrial development in the region. We provided grant funding for the feasibility study, which is currently underway.

We are also working with our shareholder, Caribbean Development Fund, to launch a groundbreaking initiative called Growth, Resilience, and Sustainability Fund (GRSF). This fund aims to mobilise alternative financial resources and leverage public assets to finance large-scale adaptation projects in CARICOM Member States, addressing fiscal constraints while fostering economic growth and climate resilience. By raising 250 million US dollars through a coalition of multilateral financial institutions, the GRSF will empower public sector projects that support the livelihoods of citizens and strengthen communities against climate challenges. A Grant financing had already been made available to CDF to support the development work. Our Fund, FEDA, would manage the Fund while Afreximbank would work with CDF to raise the concessional financing for the Fund.

You will agree with me that efficient and lowcost intra-Caribbean and Afri-Caribbean payments are vital to accelerating trade and investment in the regions. In this regard, Afreximbank and the central banks of the CARICOM have launched the Caribbean Payment and Settlement System (CAPSS), modelled after the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), promoted by Afreximbank in partnership with AfCFTA Secretariat and the African Union Commission (AUC), to enable regional trade payment in local currencies. CAPSS will eliminate costly currency conversions, facilitate faster transaction flows, and decolonise our payment ecosystems.

As we speak, a pilot is underway, involving central banks from across the region. Our objective is to bring every CARICOM country into this payment ecosystem and create seamless trade financing corridors. These corridors will link African and Caribbean SMEs to larger markets, enable e-commerce integration, and lower transaction costs. As we have seen in Africa where utilisation of PAPSS is increasing by about 1000% period over period, we will also launch a currency trading platform similar to what we have done in Africa as well as CAPSS card that would enable CARICOM citizens to spend their national currencies anywhere they visit in the Caribbean. As with Africa, we can also work with the stock exchange to enable investments in multiple jurisdictions using national currencies, thereby enhancing liquidity and access to long term financing to businesses in the region.

To support the technological advancement of our people, Afreximbank is supporting the P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa Caribbean Advocacy at the University of the West Indies to establish an Africa-Caribbean hub dedicated to the pioneering development of generative
Artificial Intelligence. This initiative is not merely about technology; it is about harnessing the untapped potential of our regions—our rich
natural resources, our brilliant minds, and our burgeoning digital frameworks. For too long, Africa and the Caribbean have been sidelined in
the global narrative of technological advancement, particularly in the realm of cutting-edge AI. As a Bank, we have committed to changing this narrative, forging an ecosystem that not only stimulates economic growth but also integrates our unique challenges and opportunities into the global technology landscape.

And, in the area of the creatives, through CANEX (Creative Africa Nexus), we have made strategic investments in fashion, film, music, culinary arts, and storytelling — showcasing Caribbean talent on global stages. In that regard, we are working with Studio 327 to develop a 24 million US dollar Creative Training and Film Production programme for OECS countries. Last year, we sponsored a historic musical collaboration called One Drum, bringing together Olodum of Brazil, Stephen Marley of Jamaica, Flavour of Nigeria, Maphoriza, and other legends, reinforcing our cultural ties.

We have also proudly supported Caribbean designers and brands—such as The Cloth from Trinidad and Tobago, Margaux Wong from Guyana, and Keneea Linton and Yolvinta from Jamaica—enabling their participation in prestigious international fashion shows, including fashion weeks in Paris, Portugal, and Tokyo.

Through the CANEX Book Factory being implemented in partnership with Chimamanda Adiche, we have also championed an initiative
to nurture Caribbean literary talents. The inaugural Creative Writing Workshop, held in August 2024 in Aburi, Ghana, welcomed emerging writers from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis, nurturing new voices in global storytelling. Furthermore, through CANEX Weekend, we have provided Caribbean chefs like Chef Natasha De Bourg from Trinidad and Tobago and Chef Davisha Burrowes from Barbados with opportunities to present Afro-Caribbean cuisine at some of the world’s leading culinary showcases.

We are creating platforms for young professionals to exchange ideas, gain internships, and build businesses. Already, interns from Barbados, Guyana, Brazil and Grenada have rotated through our African offices. We have expanded this programme to include leading businesses in both regions.

Your Excellencies, Honourable Prime Ministers, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, while we remain very proud of what we have achieved so far, we are also mindful that much more needs to be done. What we have done so far is prove the concept we now need to institutionalise it. That is why I think we should consider creating a Commission that becomes fully responsible for delivering on the Africa-Caribbean and the broader Global Africa initiative. Such a Commission should be sovereign, but still supported by Afreximbank, the CARICOM, and the African Union. This move will give more focus to the initiative, reduce the administrative burden on Afreximbank and create an environment for innovation. The Commission should advance the socio-cultural, creatives, economic, and trade agenda of this initiative. It is such a commission that can more directly promote collaboration in education, science and technology, trade information, sports, other aspects of creative industry, etcetera. Earlier this year, AfroSports, supported by Afreximbank, organised the first ever Unity Cup Tournament in London. The game involved Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana and Nigeria. It was highly successful, an indication of the hunger for such events. There is no reason
why an expanded Unity Cup involving may more countries cannot be organised. Today, people of African descent, in both the continent and the diaspora dominate many aspects of field and track events globally. Is it not high time we thought of a Global-Africa Athletics Championship or something of the sort?

It will be the duty of the Commission I have in mind to push some of these initiatives through. We hope we can draw on the wisdom of our two great statesmen, H.E. President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Hon. P.J. Patterson, to guide us in these efforts. We also hope that the initiative can be endorsed by CARICOM and AU Commission at their joint Summit in Addis Ababa in September 2025, to enable work towards its final establishment to commence.

In addition, going forward, we must commit, and take urgent steps, to establish direct air and maritime links between Africa and the Caribbean. It is inconceivable that goods and people must travel through third countries to reach our shores. We must change this, and we must do so with some urgency.

Hon. Prime Ministers, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in a few weeks, I will be closing out my role as President of Afreximbank. At the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Bank held in Abuja a month ago, Shareholders appointed my successor, Dr George Elombi, who is presently here with us. Dr Elombi is a long-serving member of Staff of the Bank, having been with us for approximately 29 years. At this critical moment in our collective history, I have no shred of doubt that he is the right person to lead us in the next phase of the Bank’s journey. I am convinced that he would give the Bank’s work in this region a renewed impetus.

Thank you, Prime Ministers, Heads of State and Governments, the AUC, CARICOM Secretariat, AfCFTA Secretariat, and the private sector, for the unwavering belief in this project and for giving us all the support we needed to make it work. I hope you will continue to accord it your
support under the new leadership at the Bank.

As I close, allow me to remind us that the Atlantic Ocean once carried our ancestors in chains. As we look ahead, we must now transform it from a grave of memory into a gateway of prosperity.

Thank you, and may God bless the Caribbean, Africa, and the global family we are forging together.

Prof. Benedict Oramah
President and Chairman of the Board of
Directors