In a landmark address that reverberated through the halls of the International Trade Centre’s Partnerships for Africa Day in Geneva, Afreximbank President Prof. Benedict Oramah delivered a bold vision for Africa’s economic future one built not on aid or extractive trade, but on the ingenuity of its small businesses, youth and creative industries.
Prof. Oramah’s keynote went beyond diplomacy; it was a clarion call for a new kind of global partnership one that places Africa’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at the heart of international commerce.
“Africa’s rise in global trade will not come from shipping out raw materials,” he declared. “It will come from exporting creativity, processing innovation and scaling the entrepreneurial spirit of 1.4 billion people.”
At the core of Afreximbank’s strategy is a relentless focus on entrepreneurship as a key component of industrial policy. In partnership with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Bank has already trained over 12,000 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in 52 countries through the ‘How to Export with the AfCFTA’ programme.
This isn’t theoretical policy. These are real businesses from Lusaka to Lagos breaking into new markets, digitizing their offerings and shaping the future of intra-African trade.
Prof. Oramah was unequivocal: “Africa will not be competitive if its small businesses remain informal, underfunded and disconnected from global value chains. Our work is about building the infrastructure of confidence for African entrepreneurs to scale not just locally, but globally.”
Moving far beyond conventional trade finance, Afreximbank is betting big on value-added growth, particularly in culture-driven economies. The Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) and Pan-African Fashion Alliance (PAFA) are strategic platforms launched by the Bank to formalize and export African creativity from fashion and film to textiles and visual arts.
These initiatives are designed not just for soft power, but hard economics: creating jobs, protecting intellectual property and embedding African culture into high-value global industries.
“We are building export-ready clusters not just to showcase Africa to the world, but to make it bankable,” Prof. Oramah stated.
Afreximbank’s pivot to strategic partnerships with Switzerland signals its shift from aid dependency to innovation diplomacy. The announcement of a new Geneva Representative Office reflects a deepening alliance with Swiss stakeholders in pharmaceuticals, machinery, ESG finance, clean energy and academia. These sectors align directly with Africa’s industrial priorities and provide the technical edge African entrepreneurs need to leapfrog barriers.
Through a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding with Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Afreximbank is unlocking access to capital, technology and markets the very ingredients African MSMEs need to scale sustainably.
Afreximbank’s redefined role as both financier and facilitator is part of a broader continental awakening: that entrepreneurship is no longer a side hustle it is Africa’s main strategy. Whether through trade deals, fashion runways, pharmaceutical factories or fintech labs, the Bank is crafting the connective tissue that binds local innovation to global capital.
