Cairo, Egypt 04 April 2023 – African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced that its Board of Directors has approved the opening of the Bank’s CARICOM Office to be established in Barbados.
Afreximbank CARICOM Office will support the implementation of the Partnership Agreement, entered into by, and between, Afreximbank and CARICOM Member States aimed at expanding Africa-Caribbean trade and investment relations.
Ten out of the 15 CARICOM Member States have signed the Agreement, which confers upon the signatories the status akin to those held by Africa Participating States. It consolidates the Bank’s efforts to promote and develop South-South trade, specifically trade between Africa and the Caribbean, in line with its Diaspora Strategy and African Union’s designation of the African Diaspora as Africa’s sixth region.
Following the establishment of the Partnership Agreement, US$1.5 billion in credit limit was approved by the Board of Directors of Afreximbank to support eligible CARICOM States, with a commitment to increase this to US$3 billion. The financing will be targeted at supporting economic sectors identified as core to boosting the region’s prosperity, particularly the development of trade-enabling infrastructure, as well as boosting trade and investments between Africa and the CARICOM Member States while providing support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s).
The establishment of Afreximbank CARICOM Office is critical to facilitating operations of the Bank in the Caribbean Community. It will bring Afreximbank’s products and initiatives closer to the business community and ensure that the Bank rapidly ramps-up operations to promote stronger relations with the Governments in the region towards the pursuit of mutually identified priorities.
Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said:
“I am delighted to announce this important milestone as we forge closer ties with our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean. There are enormous opportunities to scale the trade and investment flows between the African continent and the broader African diaspora. Investment flows between Africa and the Caribbean are currently almost non-existent. This strategic partnership will open the door for enhanced trade and investment between Africa and the Caribbean. We are poised to right the wrongs of the middle passage. This approval is an important step towards that end.
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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