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
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