Letshego, a Nigerian microfinance bank, and the African Export-Import (Afrexim) Bank won big at the African Banker Awards 2023 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Afrexim Bank took home awards for African Bank of the Year and DFI of the Year at the awards ceremony on Wednesday, while Letshego Nigeria won the first AFAWA Bank of the Year Award, a prize honouring financial organisations that support female entrepreneurs on the continent.

Also, Harvesh Kumar Seegolam, the Mauritius Central Bank’s youngest-ever governor, received the Central Bank Governor of the Year Award. Governor Seegolam, who was appointed at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, used the Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC) to invest in private sector operators and so provided crucial financial support to important economic sectors.

Held on the sidelines of the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings, the organisers explained that the awards were given to Afrexim bank in appreciation of the bank’s rising leadership in Africa’s financial services industry.

According to the organiser, Afrexim bank received the African Bank of the Year award for having “considerably changed the banking landscape by reaching out to new customers, offering new services, adopting inclusiveness by bringing the unbanked into the banking space, making use of new technologies, and helping to drive growth through a stronger financial sector.”

The organisers claim that Afrexim bank was chosen for the DFI of the Year award because it was the development financial institution that had shown strong performance across numerous metrics, both qualitative and quantitative, and had supported clients and projects while delivering high impact in “these unprecedented times.

Afreximbank became the only organisation to take home more than one honour at the award ceremony where it won both the African Bank of the Year and the DFI of the Year awards.

African Banker magazine hosts the African Banker Awards to honour the accomplishments of people and organisations that have made a significant contribution to the expansion and development of the continent’s banking industry throughout the years.