Afreximbank Disburses $15 billion For Intra-African Trade

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said it has already disbursed $15 billion out of the $25 billion it committed in support of intra-African trade, under its current five-year strategic plan.

The region’s multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade, owned by African governments, private and institutional investors, and non-African investors, with Nigeria as a major stakeholder, noted that it that was delivering on the commitments it made in support of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

While declaring open the “Africa 2019: Investment for Africa Forum”, in Egypt, the bank’s President, Prof. Benedict Oramah, said the funding has been helping to bridge the trade finance gap in Africa.

He added that Afreximbank would soon commence the piloting of a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, which will allow cross-border trade in Africa to be done in national currencies, thereby addressing the issue of high cost of payments.

Oramah also said the Bank is building a trade information portal, which would be launched by year-end, to improve knowledge and access to critical trade information across Africa and was developing industrial parks across the continent.

It is also working with the African Union to organise the second Intra-African Trade Fair in Kigali, Rwanda, in September 2020, continued Prof. Oramah. The trade fair would underpin a market of 1.2 billion people, attract over 1,000 exhibitors and 5,000 buyers and generate over $32 billion in deals.