The African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank has announced it will boost the efforts of African countries in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic with a 3M US dollars grant, part of which will go to the COVID-19 Special Fund set up by the African Union and to the African Centre for Disease Control.
The announcement was made last April 23 in Cairo, Egypt.
In a release, the President of the bank, Prof Benedict Oramah indicates the grant is in response to a request by African heads of State through the auspices of the African Union Chair person, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s President for the mobilization of resources to address the health crisis.
“We hope that our modest contribution will help to address some of the immediate needs. We encourage other African banks, funds, corporations and charitable Organizations to also contribute to the relief effort…” Prof Benedict Oramah said.
He further indicated the bank is working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, ECA and the African Union, AU to help mobilise gant funding for the Coronavirus response.
According to Prof Oramah, no one country or institution will be able to rise to the challenges of the pandemic on its own, reason why wide institutional support is much needed to effectively address the COVID-19 situation.
This is not the only move Afreximbank has taken to help stem the spread of the Coronavirus in African countries.
The release indicates the bank has taken several initiatives including a 3 billion US dollars Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility, PATIMFA launched in March to help African countries deal with the economic and health impacts of the pandemic and a 200 million US dollars set aside to be used in financing the production of COVID-19 equipment and supplies within Africa.
Besides that, the bank is noted for supporting African countries in times of crisis. In November 2014, it contributed 1 million US dollars to the efforts to combat the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease which affected several countries in West Africa.
In 2019, the bank donated 1.5 million US dollars to countries in Southern Africa to suppoet relief efforts for victims of Tropical Cyclone Idai.
About Afreximbank: The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is the foremost panAfrican multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. The Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors. Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organisation, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations. Voted the African Banker of the Year in 2019, Afreximbank has approved more than $7 billion for African businesses in 2018. Afreximbank had total assets and guarantees amounted to over USD$16 billion as at 31 December 2019. It is rated A- (GCR International scale), Baa1 (Moody’s), and BBB- (Fitch). The Bank is headquartered in Cairo. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com
