Intra-African trade gets $1 billion push

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa SOC Limited (ECIC), yesterday, Johannesburg, unveiled a $1billion financing programme to promote and expand trade and investments between the country and the rest of Africa.

The financing, under the South African-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme (SATIPP), Afreximbank and ECIC will work together to identify, prepare and appraise trade transactions and projects.They will also explore co-financing and risk-sharing opportunities, as well as share knowledge, with particular emphasis on intra-African trade matters, through technical cooperation, staff exchange, research and joint events.

This is coming few weeks after the continent’s largest trade bank, reiterated its cooperation with Nigeria’s quest for development and offered to arrange financing of up to $1 billion to support investments in trade enabling infrastructure.The pan-African multilateral lender said that its facilities had made major impact on critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, while the institution now has loans outstanding of about $3.5 billion in the country as at 31 December 2017.

The bank identified the benefiting sectors of its to include financial institutions, transport, hospitality, manufacturing, agro-allied, oil and gas, power, and telecommunications.But addressing the business community, media and stakeholders from the public and private sectors, the President of Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Oramah, said that the joint initiative would support businesses through capacity building and market information initiatives and would help small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to join regional supply chains.

It would also provide advisory services and guarantees to South African investors seeking trade and investment opportunities in Afreximbank’s regional member countries.According to him, the initiative provides a platform for the realisation of Afreximbank’s strategic objectives in line with its strategy- Impact 2021: Africa Transformed, which prioritises intra-African trade, industrialisation and export manufacturing.

The Chief Executive Officer of ECIC, Kutoane Kutoane, said: “We realise that one of the best ways to enhance our exporting capabilities as a country is by intensifying mutually beneficial trade with the rest of the continent.” Today, Afreximbank commenced its yearly general meetings in Abuja, slated for July 11 to 14, while it also has the Intra-African Trade Fair in Cairo slated for December 11 to 17, in efforts to promote trade among African countries.

Oramah said the trade fair, being promoted in collaboration with the African Union and the Egyptian government, would be the continent’s single largest trade fair and the first of its kind.It will feature a seven-day trade show where Nigerian businesses could join others to showcase their capital goods and service offerings to a large market, including private sector corporates and government institutions from up to 55 African countries.