The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says it will arrange a facility of up to $1 billion for Egypt to improve the it foreign currency liquidity.
In a statement on Sunday, Afreximbank President Dr Benedict Oramah, was quoted as saying this when he visited Tarek Amer, Governor of Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) in Cairo.
Oramah said the facility was to support imports of essential goods towards the sustenance of industrial activities in the country.
He said the facility could operate either as an allocation of trade finance lines of credit to key state-owned commercial banks on the basis of a list of import letters of credit.
According to him, Afreximbank will honour due payments under such import letters of credit through drawings under the allocated line to be repaid by the Egyptian banks.
“It could also be in form of a foreign exchange swap arrangement with the CBE under which Afreximbank would fund the CBE with U.S. dollars in exchange for an equivalent amount of Egyptian pounds,” he said.
Oramah said the facility was part of Afreximbank’s effort to support African central banks to improve foreign currency liquidity.
He stressed that once the proposal received the favourable consideration of the CBE, Afreximbank would start mapping out the operational modalities with the relevant parties.
He also informed Amer that Afreximbank had initiated a $500-million Egypt-Africa Trade Promotion Programme aimed at facilitating trade between Egypt and the rest of Africa.
According to him, the aim is to deepen industrial activity in Egypt by financing import of capital goods and supporting improved access of Egyptian entities to African markets.
The bank president announced that Afreximbank had identified Egypt as one of five hubs for the facilitation of intra-regional trade in Africa.
“Afreximbank is working to support the re-emergence of export trading companies across the continent,” he added.
Amer welcomed the proposal and encouraged Afreximbank to continue to create opportunities for Egyptian businesses to expand their operations to other African markets.
Afreximbank is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra and extra-African trade. It is headquartered in Cairo.
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