News Release: Afreximbank Wins Recognition For SME Support

Afreximbank President Jean-Louis Ekra (left), with Africainvestor CEO Hubert Danso, displays trophy awarded to the Bank for support to African SMEs.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has won new recognition for its work in support of Africa’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with the Bank taking the top honours for the Best Initiative In Support of SMEs and the Millennium Development Goals at this year’s Africainvestor Investment and Business Leader Awards.

At the awards presentation ceremony in Washington, D.C., on 10 October 2013, Africainvestor said that Afreximbank was selected for the award because its programmes reflected the appropriate balance between felt and real needs of SMEs and because those programmes recommended clear actions to facilitate SME creation or growth.

In addition, the Bank’s programmes had direct impact, added Africainvestor.

Accepting the award, Jean-Louis Ekra, President of Afreximbank, reiterated the commitment of the Bank to continuing the effort to promote intra and extra-African trade, stressing the important role of SMEs in achieving that objective.

Also nominated for the award were the Industrial Development Corporation, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, the African Development Bank, the Motsepe Foundation, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and the Econet Group.

According to Africa investor, the Africaivestor Investment and Business Leader Awards seek to reward exceptional business practices, economic achievements and investments across the investment spectrum in Africa and to shed light on Africa's many investment and leadership success stories.

The African Export Import Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors to finance and promote intra- and extra-African trade. Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organization, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations.  Since 1994, the Bank has approved more than $25 billion in credit facilities in support of African trade, including $3.71 billion in 2012. Afreximbank is headquartered in Cairo.

Obi Emekekwue

External Communications

Afreximbank