Nigeria has taken a significant step towards bolstering its export initiative by officially becoming the latest signatory to the Establishment Agreement of the Fund for Export Development in Africa, FEDA, the development impact-oriented subsidiary of African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank.
A statement signed by the Manager, Media Relations, Afreximbank, Vincent Musumba on Friday noted that Nigeria joined the ranks of countries acceding to the Establishment Agreement of FEDA, becoming the 16th nation to do so.
He said this underscored the increasing backing the Fund enjoyed among African nations.
“This announcement comes three decades following Afreximbank’s establishment in Nigeria, a key milestone that boldly demonstrates Nigeria’s continued commitment to supporting Afreximbank and FEDA’s missions.
“FEDA sees new memberships as critical to broadening its scope of interventions and its mission of delivering long-term capital to African economies, with a focus on industrialization, intra-African trade and value-added exports,” he said.
Musumba stated that the signing of the FEDA Establishment Agreement was expected to pave the way for the ratification of the agreement in due course.
“This will in turn bolster FEDA’s interventions in Nigeria,” he added.
Musumba quoted Prof. Benedict Oramah, President, Afreximbank and Chairman of the Boards of both Afreximbank and FEDA, as saying: “We extend our sincere appreciation to the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the signing of the FEDA Establishment Agreement.
“This significant achievement further strengthens the already robust partnership between Afreximbank and Nigeria, one of the bank’s foremost supporters.
“The partnership will enhance investments in sectors critical to the development journey of Nigeria.”
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Musumba noted that FEDA is the impact investment subsidiary of Afreximbank set up to provide equity, quasi-equity, and debt capital to finance the multi-billion-dollar funding gap, particularly in equity needed to transform the Trade sector in Africa.
He said other countries who had acceded to FEDA’s Establishment Agreement included Rwanda, Mauritania, Guinea, Togo, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe.
Musumba said others are Kenya, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Príncipe, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Egypt.
Credible News reports that 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 that was adopted by the African Union as the payment and settlement platform to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA.
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