Eric Intong Monchu has risen through the ranks at Afreximbank for more than a decade. On August 31, the Cameroonian banker was appointed Group Managing Director, in charge of Client Relations and Regional Operations. Four other appointments strengthen the Bank’s regional leadership: Kudakwashe Matereke will head operations for Anglophone West Africa, Humphrey Nwugo for East Africa, Peter Adeshola Olowononi for Southern Africa, and Roy Reid for the Caribbean Office.
Based in Cairo, Eric Intong Monchu will notably be responsible for bringing together three essential dimensions of banking activities: business development, client relationship management, and transaction execution. This is a responsibility with which he is already familiar. Since May 2026, he had been serving in these functions in an acting capacity, with responsibility for client coverage and regional operations across Africa and the Caribbean.
A career grounded in African realities
Before taking up his position as Group Managing Director, Eric Intong Monchu had notably served as Regional Director of Operations and Head of Mission for Anglophone West Africa, based in Abuja, Nigeria. In this role, he was at the heart of Afreximbank’s activities in a region where economies, markets, and regulatory frameworks vary considerably. But to understand his rise, it is necessary to go back to 2014.
That year, Eric Intong Monchu joined Afreximbank as Director of Trade Finance and Regional Director for Anglophone West Africa. He was then responsible for the Bank’s business and credit portfolio across several countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.
The context was far from simple. Oil prices were falling, the Nigerian naira was devalued, and several economies in the region were experiencing periods of severe economic stress. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries were still struggling to recover from the consequences of the Ebola epidemic.
In such an environment, financing trade is not simply a matter of mobilizing capital. It requires assessing risks, understanding local economies, anticipating challenges and, above all, finding ways to support companies and governments facing exceptional circumstances.
This period helped shape one of the defining characteristics of Eric Intong Monchu’s career: his ability to bring together risk management, trade finance, and economic development.
From risk management to structuring major transactions
He was subsequently promoted to Senior Director of Structured Trade Finance for Financial Institutions and Specialized Products.
The role brought a new level of scale and complexity. His responsibilities included transaction origination and structuring, credit risk analysis, negotiation of financing terms, securing credit approvals, and coordinating legal documentation. These responsibilities were complemented by the monitoring of financing facilities and, when necessary, their restructuring.
Eric Intong Monchu also served as Senior Director of Trade Finance for sovereigns, financial institutions, and corporates.
Over the years, this technical expertise became a defining thread of his career. It enabled him to develop an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms underpinning African trade, as well as the risks associated with financing it. This combination is particularly strategic for an institution whose very mandate is to support trade and economic integration across the continent.
Before Afreximbank, the Citi School of Banking
Eric Intong Monchu’s professional career, however, did not begin in Cairo. Before joining Afreximbank, he spent several years in Cameroon’s banking sector. Between 2011 and 2014, he worked at Citibank Cameroon, where he notably served as Vice President, Head of Commercial Credit, and Deputy Head of Corporate Banking.
There, he developed a deep understanding of the needs of major corporations and institutions.
His responsibilities included credit relationship origination, financial and risk analysis, anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (AML/KYC) procedures, credit approvals, and the monitoring of distressed portfolios.
His portfolio included major players in the Cameroonian and African economies: multinationals, industrial groups, telecommunications operators, public enterprises, and companies operating in agriculture, consumer goods, energy, and infrastructure.
This experience strengthened a dual skill set that would prove decisive in the next stages of his career: understanding the needs of large corporations while mastering the control and risk-management mechanisms required to finance them.
Learning the banking business
Before Citi, Eric Intong Monchu spent eight years at Union Bank of Cameroon. He successively held several positions there, spanning compliance, accounting and financial control, treasury and risk management, credit analysis, branch management, business development, and corporate banking.
This progression is telling. Eric Intong Monchu did not build his career in a single specialty. He moved from control functions to commercial roles, from financial analysis to risk management, and ultimately to leadership and business development.
In other words, he gradually learned to look at banking from multiple perspectives: risk, the client, the transaction, and ultimately, strategy.
A strong academic background
Eric Intong Monchu holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Buea, obtained in 2002. During his studies, he also served as President of the Students’ Association from 2001 to 2002, an early leadership experience that foreshadowed his subsequent management career.
He subsequently pursued further studies in the Netherlands, earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA), specializing in Finance and Accounting, from Rotterdam Business School in 2007.
Eric Intong Monchu is the Chairman of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) African Regional Committee.
