African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will disburse $ 40 billion to support intra-African trade and investments in five years.
The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Prof Benedict Oramah,disclosed this at the start of the 29th Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2022) in Cairo.
He said that last year, the bank disbursed about $20 billion through its Intra-African trade division to pursue similar cause.
He added : “That had raised the intra-African trade share of the bank’s portfolio from three percent in 2016 to about 27per cent in 2021 and had enabled African contractors to bid for African infrastructure-related projects.Africa’s problems are for Africans to solve”
According to him,Afreximbank had intervened to assist the continent implement African solutions during challenging times, some with the support of other development partners and African institutions.
He expressed that with the creation of the African Vaccine Trust (AVAT), which enabled African Union (AU) member states to procure 400 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic through the AU’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), the notion that Africa cannot rise again had been debunked.
He complemented the resilience of the continent during the challenging times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that positive stories emanating from particular countries like Egypt, which had invested over 62 billion US Dollars over the past six years in massive infrastructural transformation, were a manifestation of the continent’s ability to achieve whatever it desired for its people.
“Notwithstanding the increased frequency of crises, we must not lose sight of the fundamental challenges that Africa must resolve. We can no longer accept that after 60 years of independence, Africa remains financially and economically fragmented. We can no longer continue to espouse the benefits of an integrated continent but do little to achieve it,” said Oramah.
On the ongoing Ukraine crisis, . Oramah appreciated the new challenges posed to Africa, including difficulties in accessing grains, fertilisers and petroleum products, and noted that Afreximbank had stepped in with the 4 billion US dollar Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Finance Programme for Africa (UKAFPA) to help countries to contain the short-term impacts of the crisis.
