News Release: Egypt Petroleum Company to receive $200 million Afreximbank support for electricity generation and distribution expansion

Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank (right), Ayman Hegazy, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Egyptian General Petroleum Company, and Hesham Okasha, Chairman, National Bank of Egypt, sign the facility agreement as Tarek Elmolla, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth (standing between flags), and another official look o

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) today in Cairo signed a $200-million loan facility agreement with the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC) to support the expansion of electricity generation and distribution in the country.

At a ceremony at the premises of the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry, Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said that the facility would also ensure uninterrupted supply of energy for Egypt’s industrial sector through the financing of import of oil and gas products.

Dr. Oramah said that facility was part of Afreximbank’s broad goal of supporting strategic sectors that could drive industrialization in Africa, noting that, over the last few years, the Bank had invested about $2 billion in energy generation and distribution in Egypt and in the export of energy products from Egypt to the rest of Africa.

Afreximbank’s support to Egypt’s energy sector was part of a broader strategic intervention in the country, continued the President, who stated that since it commenced operations in 1994, the Bank had approved more than $7 billion for Egyptian entities and had disbursed $5 billion. The Bank’s exposure to Egyptian entities currently stood at more than $4 billion, he added.

Referring to the $500-million Egypt-Africa Trade Promotion Programme launched by the Bank in January 2015 to facilitate trade and investment flows between Egypt and the rest of Africa, he announced that that programme had enabled Egyptian entities to access some markets in Africa and had supported an estimated aggregate of more than $1.5 billion of Egyptian exports to the rest of Africa.

Earlier, Tarek Elmolla, the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth, said that the Afreximbank loan facility would complement the effort of the government in meeting the continuing needs for the development of the country.

He commended Afreximbank for its support and said that the government was building a new Egypt and required the support of all. It was currently developing the biggest gas discovery in the Mediterranean.

Also making statements were Hesham Okasha, Chairman of the National Bank of Egypt, and Zeinab Hashim, Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Capital, whose institutions are participating respectively as local operation bank for the transaction and as financial adviser to EGPC.

Obi Emekekwue

Afreximbank Communications