The African Export-Import Bank crossed the US$1 billion net profit threshold for the first time in its three-decade history in 2025, posting a 19 per cent rise in net income to US$1.2 billion from $973.5 million the previous year. The results, announced on April 9, 2026, reflect sustained growth in demand for trade finance across Africa and the Caribbean at a time when many developing economies are navigating tighter global financial conditions, weaker currencies and elevated borrowing costs.
Total assets and contingencies rose 21 per cent to US$48.5 billion, up from US$40.1 billion at the end of 2024, underscoring the bank’s consistent growth trajectory. Net loans and advances closed the year at US$33.5 billion, an increase of 16 per cent from US$29.0 billion, supported by continued disbursements across the continent and the Caribbean. The bank funded strategic priority areas including manufacturing, infrastructure, food security and climate adaptation.
The group’s liquidity position remained robust, with cash and cash equivalents rising to $6.0 billion from $4.6 billion in 2024. Liquid assets accounted for 14 per cent of total assets, above the bank’s strategic minimum threshold of 10 per cent. Shareholders’ funds grew 17 per cent to $8.4 billion, driven by net income of $1.2 billion and new equity inflows of $299.4 million raised under the General Capital Increase II programme. Gross income increased by just over 6 per cent to $3.5 billion from $3.3 billion in 2024.
Asset quality held steady despite a complex external environment. The non-performing loan ratio remained stable at 2.43 per cent, compared with 2.33 per cent a year earlier, demonstrating consistent portfolio quality.
Operating expenses rose to $459.2 million from $367.7 million, reflecting staff expansion and inflationary pressures, though the bank kept its cost-to-income ratio at 21 per cent, well below its strategic ceiling of 30 per cent.
Afreximbank is investing in two key subsidiaries: FEDA Holdings, a $1.3 billion investment platform supporting strategic sectors, and the African Medical Centre of Excellence, a major healthcare project in Abuja valued at $249 million. These projects did not generate significant revenue in 2025 but are long-term investments aligned with the bank’s industrial development strategy launched in 2022.
The insurance subsidiary, AfrexInsure, has also turned profitable, adding a new income stream to the group’s earnings base.
Despite some concerns raised by rating agencies, investor confidence in the institution held firm. Afreximbank successfully accessed international capital markets during the year, raising over $800 million through Samurai and Panda bond issuances in Japan and China.
The ability to tap these markets simultaneously underlines the bank’s growing presence among institutional investors in Asia, a strategic diversification of its funding base beyond traditional Western capital markets.
Denys Denya, senior executive vice president, framed the results as the product of a decade of deliberate institutional building. “Despite continuing global geopolitical challenges and disruptions caused by some rating actions, the Group delivered excellent financial performance in 2025, a fitting tribute to a decade of consequential leadership under Professor Oramah, with total assets and contingencies reaching $49 billion,” he said. “The balance sheet is at its strongest level ever, with liquidity levels and capitalisation well above target and good asset quality.”
The broader context for Afreximbank’s growth is the accelerating push to expand intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area. Afreximbank’s own data shows that trade between African countries grew 12.4 per cent to reach $220.3 billion in 2024, reversing a contraction of 5.9 per cent in 2023, with the bank estimating that Africa’s total merchandise trade recovered to $1.5 trillion in 2024. Africa still makes up only 3.3 per cent of global exports, and the continent faces a trade finance gap estimated at about $100 billion.
More Read
Closing that gap is central to Afreximbank’s mandate and the principal driver of its expanding balance sheet.
With its sixth strategic plan concluding at the end of 2026, management now faces a clear test: whether its multi-platform expansion, encompassing banking, investment, insurance and healthcare, can sustain both growth and financial discipline as operating costs, which grew 25 per cent in 2025, more than twice the pace of revenue, come under closer scrutiny.
For now, the milestone of a billion-dollar profit signals that Africa’s foremost trade finance institution is entering that next phase from a position of genuine financial strength.
