FirstHoldCo Plc has appointed Gwen Mwaba, a former senior executive at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), as a non-executive director, bringing nearly three decades of global banking and development finance experience to the Nigerian financial services group. The appointment took effect on October 15, 2026, following approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according to a notice filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
Mwaba most recently served as managing director of trade finance and correspondent banking at Afreximbank in Cairo, Egypt, where she oversaw a portfolio worth $19.5 billion comprising sovereign, financial institution, and corporate exposures. In that role, she provided senior-level credit oversight through the bank's pre-credit and credit committees while managing portfolio strategy, sector exposures, and country risk limits. Before her most recent position, she was regional head for Anglophone West Africa at Afreximbank, overseeing strategy and credit origination across Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, and Cape Verde.
Earlier in her career, Mwaba worked as executive vice president of structured trade and commodity finance at Standard Bank Plc in London, handling complex commodity financing, export-credit-agency-backed facilities and pre-export financing transactions across Africa. She has also held senior positions at Stanbic Bank Zambia and Standard Bank South Africa, including head of vehicle and asset finance and head of corporate banking. Beyond her executive banking roles, she has served on the editorial board of Trade Treasury & Payments and was a member of the Multilateral Institutions Board Advisory Panel of the International Trade & Forfaiting Association and the World Trade Organization-led Expert Group on Trade Finance.
Mwaba holds a Master of Business Administration from Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University. She is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds a professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Transport. Her appointment strengthens FirstHoldCo's board-level oversight of risk management, lending strategy, and capital deployment across its financial services operations.