Afreximbank says $850m Chinese banks’ funds will enhance African trade

THE African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says the 850 million dollars donated to it by two Chinese financial institutions will enable the bank to expand its support to African businesses.

Mr Obi Emekekwue, head of Media, Afreximbank, said on Wednesday in Abuja that the bank’s President, Benedict Oramah, made the remark at a recent China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC 2018) in Beijing.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bank signed agreements for a 500 million dollar facility with the China Development Bank and a 350 million dollar facility with Bank of China.

According to Oramah, the China Development Bank facility will enable Afreximbank support trade-enabling infrastructure projects across Africa.

He said the 350 million dollars from the Bank of China was targeted at direct bank-to-bank loans, participation in syndicated loans and trade finance, among others.

He said: “The Bank of China agreement followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Chinese bank and Afreximbank.

“Under the terms of the MoU, the two institutions committed to collaborating in the identification of co-financing and co-investing opportunities; cooperating in projects and transactions to enhance trade and investment between China and Africa.

“They also agreed to support projects under the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative in order to bring shared development opportunities to China and Africa.’’

The President said Afreximbank took advantage of the forum to meet with several high-level personalities to discuss on areas of collaboration.

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He listed the personalities to include, Presidents Macky Sall of Senegal, Faure Gnassingbé of Togo, Denis Sassou-Ngueso of the Republic of Congo and Zhang Qingsong, the new President of China Exim Bank.

“That meeting made the Afreximbank delegation the first to be formally received by the China Exim Bank President in his new role.

“Similar meetings were held with Liqun Jin, Chairman and President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Liu Liange, President of Bank of China.

“The Afreximbank delegation also met with Jack Ma, Chairman of the Alibaba Group, to hold discussions on areas of possible collaboration,’’ Oramah said, in a statement by Emekekwue.