Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), has met with José de Lima Massano, Governor of Banco National de Angola, Angola’s central bank, to discuss ways to support the Angolan banking sector, enhance trade, and facilitate broader access to trade finance.During the meeting, which took place on 20 April in Washington D.C. on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Dr. Oramah expressed Afreximbank’s commitment to expanding its trade finance intervention in Angola, which is a founding shareholder of the Bank.
He discussed the current pipeline of transactions under review by the Bank, saying that it included the provision of a trade services and confirmation facility to assist Angolan banks in supporting trade imports.
President Oramah added that Afreximbank saw opportunities to deploy its Food Emergency Contingent Trade Financing Facility in Angola to enable the country mitigate vulnerability to drought by substituting physical food reserves with a standby facility that was immediately available to guarantee the import of equivalent volumes of food, in the event of an emergency, at an agreed fixed purchase price.
Earlier, Mr. de Lima Massano said that the key objective of his institution was to strengthen the Angolan financial sector and to increase the availability of foreign exchange to support the growth of the country’s trade activity.
He pledged to support the strengthening of Afreximbank activities in Angola, saying that the Bank’s programmes and facilities were in line with the country’s current needs.
The Afreximbank and Banco de Angola teams in discussion during the meeting.