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Bank President Jean-Louis
Ekra (Left) exchanges documents with ICCO Executive Director Jean-Marc Anga,
following signing of memorandum of understanding at Afreximbank’s Cairo
Headquarters
|
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has
provided about $350 million in financing to support cocoa processing activities
in the four major cocoa producing countries in Africa, Jean-Louis Ekra,
President of the Bank, has said.
The Bank also had a pipeline of another $400 million,
added Mr. Ekra, who was speaking at the Bank’s Cairo Headquarters on 28
November during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between
Afreximbank and the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) aimed at boosting
the development of the African cocoa sector and cocoa related business.
He reaffirmed Afreximbank’s commitment to helping
achieve greater involvement of Africa in the global cocoa value chain,
increasing cocoa consumption in Africa, diversifying the continent’s cocoa
export markets, and improving productivity and income levels for African cocoa
farmers.
“It is to achieve these ends that the Bank launched
its Africa Cocoa Initiative (AFRICOIN),” said Mr. Ekra, who noted that that
initiative had become very popular today.
Also speaking, Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director of
ICCO, welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with Afreximbank, saying that
there was need for a strong focus on supporting indigenous African businesses
to play an active role in the processing of Africa’s cocoa.
Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the
two organizations are expected to collaborate to develop activities, secure
funding and jointly implement activities and projects towards sustainability in
the production and trade of cocoa.
The initial focus would be on the development and
implementation of solutions to improve the structural conditions of cocoa
markets and to enhance the long-term competitiveness of smallholder cocoa farms
and of local cocoa and chocolate products industry in order to reinforce their
capacity to participate in global trade.
Obi Emekekwue
Afreximbank
External Communications
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