Afreximbank has appointed Peter Adeshola Olowononi as Director of Regional Operations for Southern Africa, with the appointment taking effect from May 1.
Olowononi succeeds Humphrey Nwugo, who has been redeployed to take up a similar position in East Africa.
The Southern Africa region covers 13 countries including Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Seychelles, South Africa and Zambia, with the regional office located in Zimbabwe.
Before his latest appointment, Olowononi served as Director for Client Relations in Anglophone West Africa, overseeing operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, SĂŁo TomĂ© and PrĂncipe and Cape Verde. During that period, he managed risk assets worth more than US$12 billion and generated revenue exceeding US$1 billion.
He was instrumental in growing Afreximbank’s Anglophone West Africa balance sheet by more than US$10 billion between 2015 and 2025 and played a central role in financing major projects including the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, fertiliser plants and infrastructure projects such as the expansion of the Federal Ocean Terminal in Onne.
Olowononi also supported healthcare and road projects in Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, while leading financing interventions across Nigeria’s upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas sectors.
“He led Afreximbank’s strategic financing in support of the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas sector in Nigeria and is widely acknowledged as a leading subject matter expert,” the bank said.
The bank added that he structured trade finance deals to support intra-African trade in cement, as well as major cocoa traders and processors in Ghana and Nigeria. He also helped commercial banks, central banks and ministries of finance implement Afreximbank interventions during the 2018 commodity price crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Olowononi joined Afreximbank in 2015 as Manager for Business Development in Anglophone West Africa.
He brings more than 20 years of banking experience to the role and has structured transactions and extended credit facilities worth more than US$20 billion across the oil and gas, manufacturing, maritime, aviation and financial services sectors over the past decade.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
