The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) distributes more than $15bn to African businesses annually to support trade on the continent, bank president Benedict Oramah said Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh.
In a meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail at the Africa Forum 2016, Oramah said the amount included some $7bn provided directly by Afreximbank and additional financing, which it invested into Africa through its syndicated transactions.
He told Ismail the bank had provided about $300m to Egyptian businesses out of the $500m set aside under the bank’s Egypt-Africa Trade Promotion Programme, which seeks to increase Egypt’s trade with other African countries. The bank has also received additional requests totaling more than $700m for financing under the programme.
Oramah said the bank was working with several Egyptian manufacturers which export to other Africa countries by providing them with necessary support to put them at near equal footing with other global players in those markets.
Afreximbank’s support to Egypt also includes a $500m facility, agreed with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) a few days earlier, to help Egyptian importers alleviate temporary foreign currency availability constraints to the importation of strategic and key industrial products.
“Afreximbank is now focusing more on intra-regional trade and investment in addition to promoting value addition in the products that Africa produces,” he said.
Ismail said Egypt was keen to work with Afreximbank and invited the bank to consider cooperating with the country in financing of key projects, particularly in the area of logistics centres and other trade supporting infrastructure.
Oramah earlier participated in a private meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
He also held bilateral meetings with Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman, Minister of Commerce and Industry of Burkina Faso Stephane Sanou, and Chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone Ahmed Darwish.
The two-day Africa Forum 2016, which ended Sunday, was organised under the name “Business for Africa, Egypt, and the World”.
