Yemisi Edun, managing director of First City Monument Bank, has been nominated by the African Banker for the African Bankers Awards 2023, a platform that rewards banking excellence in Africa. She was nominated for the Banker of the Year Award category, a statement released by the organizers has shown.
“The 2023 edition of the Awards ceremony is set to spotlight SMEs, women and gender. A new category has been introduced to recognize efforts towards bolstering financial inclusion of women across the continent. This year’s Awards gala is poised to accentuate the theme of gender equity in the industry, as demonstrated by the substantial proportion of female candidates vying for the coveted title of Banker of the Year.
“In addition, in partnership with the African Guarantee Fund, a fresh accolade has been instituted to acknowledge and encourage initiatives aimed at propelling financial inclusivity for women across the African continent, the AFAWA Bank of the Year award. AFAWA (Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa) is a pan-African initiative to bridge the $42 billion financing gap facing women in Africa,” the African Banker said.
Other nominees for the Banker of the Year award category include Admassu Tadesse – Trade and Development Bank; Prof Benedict Oramah – Afreximbank; Esther Kariuki – Co-operative Bank of Kenya; Moezz Mir – SBM Bank, Kenya; Mukwandi Chibesakunda – Zanaco, Zambia, and Othman Benjelloun – Bank of Africa.
The other award categories are the Bank of the Year; Sustainable Bank of the Year; DFI of the Year; Fintech of the Year; SME Bank of the Year; Deal of the Year – Debt; Agriculture deal of the Year, and the infrastructure deal of the Year.
The nominees for the Bank of the Year include Afreximbank; Bank of Africa; Co-operative Bank of Kenya; CRDB Bank – Tanzania; The Mauritius Commercial Bank; Trade and Development Bank, and the Trust Merchant Bank, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The financial institutions that made the list of the Sustainable Bank of the Year are Absa, South Africa; Commercial International Bank, Egypt; Nedbank, South Africa; Rand Merchant Bank, South Africa as well as Trade and Development Bank.
For the Fintech of the Year award category, we have firms like Ensibuuko Technologies, Uganda; Flutterwave, Nigeria; JUMO World, South Africa; Lulalend, South Africa, and MFS Africa, South Africa.
Under the Agriculture deal of the Year award category, we have transactions such as the Launch of a first-of-its-kind AgriHarvest Platform by the Rand Merchant Bank; US$100m working capital trade finance facility to Export Trading Group (ETG) by the Trade and Development Bank; 8bn EGP (US$266m) Syndicated Long-Term Loan Facility for Evergrow by Banque Misr; Syndicated Long Term Facility US$161m General Authority for Rehabilitation Projects & Agricultural Development (GARPAD) -by the National Bank of Egypt, and the US$78m funding facility for the Southern Oil Structured Commodity Finance Transaction – Absa.
The nominees for the Infrastructure deal of the Year award category include US$650m equivalent syndicated loan facility to EDF Renewable – Absa; US$21.7m Corporate Sukuk issuance for Family Homes Fund – Greenwich Merchant Bank; US$1bn 7-year Amortizing Term Loan in favour of a Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) for NNPC Limited Project Yield – Afreximbank’ US$900m debt funding facility for Scatec Solar PV plus Battery Storage Project – Standard Bank, and the US$310m debt package for the Sports and Roads Infrastructure Kigali – Trade and Development Bank.
The African Banker Awards are a landmark annual event for African banking taking place during the annual meetings of the African Development Bank. Organised by African Banker magazine and IC Events in co-operation with BusinessinAfrica Events, the African Banker Awards celebrate excellence and best practices in African banking.
