Afreximbank recognises exceptional companies

The African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) recently celebrated various African companies at the second edition of the Pan-African Business and Development Awards, in association with the Business Council for Africa (BCA).

The awards, held on the sidelines of the Afreximbank Annual Meetings 2024 in Nassau, The Bahamas, are designed to celebrate and recognise transformative businesses and financial institutions within the African continent.

This year’s edition saw Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP) win the Pan African Business of the Year award in recognition of the instrumental role it has played in advancing industrialisation, export development and economic transformation in Africa.

Arise IIP designs, finances and operates industrial ecosystems across Africa. These ecosystems address industrial gaps in African countries, enabling sustainable local transformation of raw materials.

Arise IIP was recognised for the role it is playing in transforming African economies and reducing reliance on the export of unprocessed raw materials.

Two financial institutions were recognised in the Pan-African Financial Institution of the Year category: KCB Group, from Kenya, which was lauded for its impact in financial services, and Rawbank, an important player in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which was recognised for its pivotal role in advancing financial inclusion and economic development in the country.

Since its establishment in 2002, Rawbank has become the DRC’s largest universal bank. A new award was launched this year, Diaspora Business of the Year, recognising an African or diasporan business that is expanding beyond its borders and strengthening economic and business ties between the continent and its diaspora, the sixth region of the continent as defined by the African Union. Elsewedy, the Egypt based manufacturer, clinched this award.

This year also saw the awards recognising the crucial role played by Afreximbank’s staff in advancing the bank’s growth and success.

Afreximbank senior manager for strategy and innovation Oluwatoyosi Adelakin emerged as the winner of the Outstanding Staff Award of the Year 2024. She has been a steady hand in ensuring that the banks’ balanced scorecard performance measurement system works as required, which has contributed greatly to the bank’s performance and profitability since implementation in 2014.

Afreximbank’s Benedict Oramah, president and chairman of the board of directors, says the awards recognise outstanding partnerships that have been powerful vehicles for transmitting its development programmes to the people it collectively serves.

“We acknowledge the fact that the progress we continue to make, the lives we touch, and the value we bring to shareholders have only been possible due to the numerous esteemed partners who share our pan-African aspirations. Thanks to those we celebrate today, and many others, Afreximbank has become consequential for Africans around the world, delivering trade and development interventions and actively supporting the implementation of the continental development agenda,” Oramah noted.

Former group Ecobank chief executive and the BCA chair Arnold Ekpe highlighted the importance of supporting initiatives that contribute to Africa development, and this has become a hallmark of Afreximbank.

The Pan-African Business and Development Awards are hosted by Afreximbank in association with the BCA.

The awards series was launched last year to recognise those organisations and leaders that epitomise the pan-African spirit by leading the way in building substantive and transformative cross border businesses.