Cairo, 14 November 2023: The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) today in Cairo presented an intra-African Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) platform designed to empower African contractors to successfully bid for contracts by allowing for the seamless posting of key infrastructure projects within the EPC space in Africa for bidding by EPC companies.
The presentation, which took place during a workshop organised on the sidelines of the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023), also covered various products, programmes and initiatives developed by Afreximbank to support local companies engaged in infrastructure contract bidding.
Addressing the workshop, Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade Bank at Afreximbank, said that the objective of the workshop was to promote African participation in large scale African infrastructure projects and to promote the award of EPC contracts to African entities.
“It is our belief that this specialized capacity building programme will enable African contractors to successfully bid for construction projects on the continent and beyond,” she said.
The workshop was held to share the results of a survey conducted on challenges faced by African contractors and to also share the critical success factors in winning projects. It also featured presentation of success stories from companies that previously received support from Afreximbank, including Mota Engil, Elsewedy and Hassan Allam.
The company representatives, in their presentations, highlighted the need for African countries to allow for the movement of labour across borders so that EPC contractors could bring in workers from other African counties where expertise existed. They also said that including local content requirement in EPC contracts would help to encourage the use of local contractors and enhance capacity building.
The workshop was capped off with the signing of facility agreements valued at US$200 million with Hassan Allam; US$30 million with Grainer Angola; US$50 million with DOTT Services; US$200 million with Arab Contractors; US$200 million with FDI; and US$300 million with Elsewedy.
IATF2023, Africa’s largest trade and investment fair, opened on November 9 and will run till November 15.
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About the Intra-African Trade Fair
Organised by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) is intended to provide a unique platform for facilitating trade and investment information exchange in support of increased intra-African trade and investment, especially in the context of implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). IATF brings together continental and global players to showcase and exhibit their goods and services and to explore business and investment opportunities in the continent. It also provides a platform to share trade, investment and market information with stakeholders and allows participants to discuss and identify solutions to the challenges confronting intra-African trade and investment. In addition to African participants, the Trade Fair is also open to businesses and investors from non-African countries interested in doing business in Africa and in supporting the continent’s transformation through industrialisation and export development.
For more information, please visit www.intrafricantradefair.com
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, please visit: www.afreximbank.com
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