First Holdco Appoints Gwen Mwaba to Board as Non-Executive Director

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

A former Managing Director for Trade Finance and Correspondent Banking at the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Ms Gwen Mwaba, has been appointed to the board of First Holdco.

A statement from the Nigerian financial institution disclosed that the appointment became effective on October 15, 2026, and that the woman will serve on the board as a non-executive director.

She brings to the team her almost three decades of experience spread across global banking and development finance institutions, with particular expertise in credit risk oversight, portfolio governance, corporate and sovereign lending, structured trade and commodity finance, development finance and emerging markets.

While at Afreximbank, Ms Mwaba had executive leadership responsibility for trade finance and structured credit activities across Africa and the Caribbean and oversaw a $19.5 billion portfolio of sovereign, financial institution and corporate exposures.

She also contributed to the bank’s Pre-Credit and Credit Committees, providing senior credit judgement on major lending transactions and oversaw portfolio strategy, sector exposures and country risk limits.

Prior to that role, the appointee served as Regional Head, Anglophone West Africa at Afreximbank, overseeing regional strategy and credit origination across Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia and Cape Verde.

Earlier, she was Executive Vice President, Structured Trade & Commodity Finance at Standard Bank Plc, London, where she was responsible for complex commodity finance, export-credit-agency-backed facilities and pre-export financing transactions across Africa.

Her earlier banking career included senior roles at Stanbic Bank Zambia and Standard Bank South Africa, including Head of Vehicle & Asset Finance and Head of Corporate Banking.

Her wider industry experience includes membership of the Editorial Board of Trade Treasury & Payments, and until recently, she also served on the Multilateral Institutions Board Advisory Panel of the International Trade & Forfaiting Association (ITFA) and the World Trade Organisation-led Expert Group on Trade Finance.

Ms Mwaba holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom, and a BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom.

She is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and holds a professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Transport.