The African Export-Import Bank
(Afreximbank) approved financing amounting to $17 billion for Nigerian entities
between its commencement of operations in 1994 and last December, Bank
President Dr. Benedict Oramah has said.
Dr.
Oramah, who was speaking in Abuja on Thursday when he led an Afreximbank
delegation on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, said that the
Bank’s facilities had made major impact on critical sectors of the Nigerian
economy and that the Bank had loans outstanding of about $3.5 billion in
Nigeria as at 31 December 2017.
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Buhari with Dr. Benedict Oramah during the visit |
He
identified the sectors benefiting from the Bank’s facilities to include
financial institutions, transport, hospitality, manufacturing, agro-allied, oil
and gas, power, and telecommunications.
Dr.
Oramah said that Afreximbank’s support to Nigeria had included provision of
liquidity and trade finance lines of more than $800 million during the banking
consolidation when many international banks cut credit lines to the country and
the provision of $1.8 billion to support the economy during the recent oil
price shock in 2015-2016.
He
enumerated that the Bank’s current initiatives in Nigeria to include the
development of testing and inspection centres across the country in
collaboration with the Standards Organization of Nigeria; establishment of a
Centre of Excellence for Tertiary Healthcare/Medical Park; potential
participation in the Nigeria SEZ Investment Company Ltd being promoted by the
government; support for industrial projects through loans to strategic banks;
arrangement and disbursal of $750 million to the Bank of Industry in June;
provision of trade and letter of credit lines to all Nigerian banks, in close
coordination with Central Bank of Nigeria, in order to ensure access to trade
finance; and development of an Afreximbank Africa Trade Centre in Abuja.
Dr.
Oramah added that the Bank was willing to work with the government to arrange
financing of up to $1 billion to support the governments investments in trade
enabling infrastructure.
He
invited President Buhari and the Nigerian government to attend the Afreximbank
Annual Meetings scheduled to take place in Abuja from 11 to 14 July.
Dr.
Oramah also informed President Buhari that Afreximbank was organising the
Intra-African Trade Fair in Cairo from 11 to 17 December to promote trade among
African countries.
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Buhari with Benedict Oramah and members of the delegation |
The
trade fair, being promoted in collaboration with the African Union and the
Egyptian government, will 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.
Responding,
President Buhari thanked Dr. Oramah for the visit and commended Afreximbank for
its support to the Nigerian economy as well as its work in promoting African
trade.
He
urged the Bank provide more support to Nigeria’s agriculture sector as a way of
boosting jobs and facilitating trade.
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