Cairo, 27 November 2015: – The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will arrange a facility of up to $1 billion , underwriting $500 of the amount, to complement the efforts of the central bank to improve foreign currency liquidity, Afreximbank President Dr. Benedict Oramah has announced in Cairo.
Presenting the proposal during a courtesy call on Tarek Amer, Governor of the CBE, on Wednesday, Dr. Oramah said that the Countercyclical Medium Term Trade Liquidity Facility would support imports of essential goods towards the sustenance of industrial activity in the country.
The facility could operate either as an allocation of trade finance lines of credit to key state-owned commercial banks with the support of CBE, on the basis of a list of import letters of credit, with Afreximbank honouring due payments under such import letters of credit through drawings under the allocated line to be repaid by the Egyptian banks or it could be in form of a direct arrangement with the CBE he said.
Explaining that the facility was part of Afreximbank’s effort to support African central banks to improve foreign currency liquidity, Dr. Benedict Oramah, said that once the proposal received the favourable consideration of the CBE, Afreximbank would start mapping out the operational modalities with the relevant parties.
He informed the Governor that Afreximbank had initiated a $500-million Egypt-Africa Trade Promotion Programme(EATPP) aimed at facilitating trade between Egypt and the rest of Africa and at deepening industrial activity in Egypt by financing import of capital goods and supporting improved access of Egyptian entities to African markets. He added that the uptake for the EATPP has been very good with almost half of it already disbursed. Afreximbank is therefore considering increasing it in cooperation with other DFIs.
The President announced that Afreximbank had identified Egypt as one of five hubs for the facilitation of intra-regional trade in Africa and was working to support the re-emergence of export trading companies across the continent.
Afreximbank would also avail its investment guarantee and country risk guarantee programmes to the Egyptian government in order to help attract foreign investment into the country, he added.
Mr. Amer welcomed the proposal to introduce the Countercyclical Medium Term Trade Liquidity Facility and encouraged Afreximbank to continue to create opportunities for Egyptian businesses to expand their operations to other African markets.
Media Contact: Fleur Tchibota (ftchibota@afreximbank.com Tel. +202-2456-4260)
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About Afreximbank:
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. The Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors. Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organization, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations. Since 1994, Afreximbank has approved almost $35 billion in credit facilities for African businesses, including about $4.5 billion in 2014. Afreximbank is headquartered in Cairo. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com