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Afreximbank President Dr. Benedict Oramah (left),
flanked by Sindiso Ngwenya, Secretary General of COMESA, speaking during the
Africa Forum 2016 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.
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The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has begun
providing export diversification financing facilities to its member countries
to help address challenges resulting from Africa’s over-dependence on commodity
exports, Bank President Dr. Benedict Oramah has said.
Describing the Bank’s
intervention in support of African economies during a panel discussion
yesterday at the Africa Forum 2016 held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Dr. Oramah
said that the initiative aimed to enable the Bank’s 38 member countries move
toward the export of value added goods and light manufactures, away from
unprocessed commodities with little value added.
He announced that
Afreximbank had almost finished utilising $3.5 billion under the
Counter-cyclical Trade Liquidity Facility, which its board of directors
approved in December to enable it assist the member countries adjust to current
adverse economic shocks, especially commodity price and terrorism-induced ones.
It was now seeking to bring on board other financial institutions and partners
so as to expand the facility.
The President added that
the Bank was finalizing an intra-African trade strategy which would support
increased trade among African countries.
Under the strategy, the
Bank would support countries to create products to be traded and connect such
producers to relevant institutions, like export trading companies, which it
would promote and finance, to handle bulk exports, freeing the producers to
focus on actual production.
Afreximbank would create
a mobile platform to ease cross-border payments and reduce the foreign exchange
cost of trade, he continued, adding that it would also open market
opportunities by financing businesses engaged in distribution and logistics
like warehouses, transport and other infrastructure. It also plans to help
address risk perceptions about business in Africa by providing necessary
guarantee covers.
Dr. Oramah expressed
confidence that Africa could wean itself from dependence on commodities, citing
the example of cocoa where the Bank’s intervention had resulted in significant
progress, including the emergence of Cote d’Ivoire as both the largest producer
and the country with the highest processing capacity in the world.
Afreximbank launched the
Africa Cocoa Initiative after realizing that while Africa produces most of
world cocoa, virtually all processing of the cocoa beans was taking place
outside Africa, with the result that very little of the revenue from the cocoa
sector was retained on the continent.
Also participating in
the panel were Sindiso Ngwenya, Secretary General of COMESA; Abdel-Hamid
Mamdouh, Director, Trade in Services Division, World Trade Organisation; Ali
Faramawy, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, Middle East and Africa; and
George Choucair, Chairman and CEO, k2l Capital, Angola; while the moderator was
Mark Eddo, a former BBC correspondent.
Earlier, the President
held bilateral meetings with Dr. Sahar Nasr, Minister of International
Cooperation of Egypt; Mr. Ngwenya; and Louis-Paul Motaze, Minister of Economy,
Planning and Regional Development of Cameroon.
The two-day Africa Forum
2016, which ended today, was organized under the theme “Business for Africa,
Egypt and the World”.
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