President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo on Tuesday announced his country’s commitment to supporting the development of intra-African trade and industrialisation of the continent.
Nguesso ratified the accession to the Establishment Agreement of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), saying that Congo would support Afreximbank’s strategy to increase trade among African countries and industrialise Africa.
Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, said that with the ratification, Afreximbank would now be able to fully deploy its programmes and facilities in order to stimulate trade activity and develop value-added exports across Congo’s economic sectors while also providing much-needed finance for the construction of trade-enabling infrastructure.
Oramah added that since August 2013, when Congo became a member state, Afreximbank had disbursed over $220m to Congolese entities, predominantly in the oil sector, and that the bank had planned to expand its trade development activities so as to contribute more meaningfully to the country’s economic transformation.
On Wednesday, Oramah met with the management of Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo, the Congolese national oil company, to explore opportunities for support to the petroleum and energy sectors.
Afreximbank is the foremost pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. Since 1994, it has approved almost $35bn in credit facilities for African businesses, including about $4.5bn in 2014.
