Afreximbank Urges DFI Partnerships to Push Africa’s Industrialisation

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Cooperation among Africa’s development financial institutions (DFIs) is crucial for the achievement of the industrialisation of the continent, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has said in Ahmedabad, India.

Speaking on Monday during a panel discussion organized by the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI) on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank, Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the Bank’s Intra-African Trade Initiative, said that opportunities for such partnerships existed in the areas of capacity building and project preparation.

Partnerships were also needed in the mobilization of long term financing required to develop industrial parks and export processing zones that had required infrastructure “inside” and “outside the fence”, especially for projects in the countries those institutions operated, continued Ms. Awani.

“Afreximbank will welcome partnerships with other DFIs in the various areas,” she said, adding that the Bank was creating the enabling environment that would help fast track industrialisation in Africa by directly addressing “hard” and “soft” infrastructure constraints inhibiting industrialization

She welcomed the fact that the African Development Bank had shown strong interest in supporting Afreximbank’s industrialisation and export development initiatives along with those of other players and called for continuing effort to boost industrialisation in Africa.

AADFI is an umbrella organization of African Development Finance Institutions created under the auspices of the African Development Bank in 1975. The Association became autonomous from the bank in 1994.