“Our Future Lies in Unity” – President Oramah declares
at 2ndAfriCaribbean Trade and Investment
Forum
Prof. Benedict O. Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank),
Georgetown, Guyana – 30 October 2023: – Today, at the Second AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF
2023), Prof. Benedict O. Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of
Directors of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), unveiled the significant
strides made in trade and investment relations between Africa and the
Caribbean.
These include SME support and development in The Bahamas, tourism revitalisation support in Barbados, tourism projects in Grenada, renewable energy projects and trade finance in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and climate adaptation interventions in Saint Lucia. Afreximbank’s investment promotion drive has attracted well advanced African investment interest in the Caribbean’s financial sector, fisheries, industrial parks, ports, renewable energy and tourism. Some of these deals will be signed at ACTIF 2023, and this will include the Bank’s impact investment subsidiary, the Fund for Export Development in Africa’s signing of a Framework Agreement with Access Bank Group, Nigeria, to jointly invest in the financial services sector across the Caribbean. The Bank will be running a pilot programme for the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) for CARICOM Central Banks as the payment infrastructure for CARICOM; and before the end of 2024, Afreximbank will start developing the Africa Trade Centre in Barbados as the permanent location for its Caribbean office, in addition to a hotel, trade information, conferencing and exhibition facilities. The Forum, being hosted in Georgetown, Guyana, will continue to foster discussions, partnerships, and actionable plans to further solidify the relationship between the African and Caribbean regions.
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About the
AfriCaribbean
Trade and Investment Forum.
The idea for ACTIF2022 resulted from an official Afreximbank
visit to Barbados in September 2021, which followed that month’s inaugural
Africa/CARICOM Summit. During the visit, the Government of Barbados and
Afreximbank identified the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum as a key
strategic activity towards institutionalising the engagement between both
regions’ private sectors to advance trade and investment relations. The
inaugural edition of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum was held in
Bridgetown, Barbados from 1 to 3 September 2022, and the second edition is
being held in Georgetown, Guyana, from 30 – 31 October 2023.
About Afreximbank.
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African
multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and
extra-African trade. For 30 years, the Bank has been deploying innovative
structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of
the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and
intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa. A stalwart
supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Afreximbank
has launched a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was
adopted by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement platform to
underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. Working with the AfCFTA Secretariat
and the AU, the Bank is setting up a US$10 billion Adjustment Fund to support
countries to effectively participate in the AfCFTA. At the end of 2022,
Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees stood at over US$31 billion, and its
shareholder funds amounted to US$5.2 billion. The Bank disbursed more than
US$86 billion between 2016 and 2022. Afreximbank has investment grade ratings
assigned by GCR (international scale) (A), Moody’s (Baa1), Japan Credit Rating
Agency (JCR) (A-) and Fitch (BBB). Afreximbank has evolved into a group entity
comprising the Bank, its impact fund subsidiary called the Fund for Export
Development Africa (FEDA), and its insurance management subsidiary,
AfrexInsure, (together, “the Group”).
For more
information, visit: www.afreximbank.com.