Afreximbank, AU in partnership to create Africa’s digital ecosystem

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and African Union are in partner in a bid to build a digital ecosystem meant to dismantle identified bottlenecks to trade finance flows within Africa.

The President of the Pan-African bank, Prof. Benedict Oramah made the disclosure in Washington D.C, USA, while delivering an address at the “IGD Frontier 100 Forum” organized by the Initiative for Global Development (IGD) held on the sidelines of the recently-concluded World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings.

According to him, one of the major constraints to intra-African trade was lack of information to support intra-regional trade and investments. He said the ugly development made many African countries to import products from outside the continent at exorbitant rates when they could source the same from neighboring countries who exported the same products at a much lower cost.

In his statement “It was to address that challenge that Afreximbank and the AU were working to use digital technology to improve access to trade information and facilitate the use of African national currencies via intra African trade settlements, he explained.

“Afreximbank was developing a focused programme to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the continent, recognizing that SMEs were a vital component to unlocking intra-African potential,” Oramah pointed.

Also, he noted that IGD has been facilitating discourse on important African issues over the years and said that Afreximbank identified with the efforts and achievements of the IGD, hence its close partnership with the initiative.

Speaking further at the event, Leila Ndiaye, President, and CEO of IGD, said that the initiative’s work was aimed at supporting Africa’s growth and development agenda and at pushing to unlock intra-African trade through SME growth and development.

Oramah and Dr. Hippolyte Fofack, Afreximbank Chief Economist, who accompanied him to the event, also participated in two panel discussions, on “Supporting Africa’s Growth and Development Agenda” and “Expanding Regional Trade and Investment for Africa’s future”, respectively.

In another development, Afreximbank has been awarded the mandate to serve as the exclusive financial adviser and mandated lead arranger for the $130-million bauxite mine expansion project by Sierra Mineral Holdings 1 Limited (Vimetco) in Sierra Leone.

The mandate was announced in Freetown on the 4^th April during a working meeting hosted by Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio with representatives of Vimetco, the chief sponsor of the project; VI Holdings, the parent company of Vimetco; and Afreximbank.

Under the terms of the mandate, as captured in an engagement letter signed between Vimetco and Afreximbank during the working meeting with President Bio, Afreximbank is given the authority to provide financial advice and to take the lead in arranging the raising of capital for the project.