The African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) is fuelling development in the import/export, aviation and energy sectors by signing both finance deals and expressions of interest for financial backing and smart connectivity, worth more than one billion US$ on the continent.
The bank announced the deals and expressions of interest at an official signing ceremony at the Intra-African Trade Fair 2021 in Durban on Tuesday.
The event, which has adopted the theme, “Building Bridges for a successful AfCFTA”, runs in the city from November 15-21. Seven African heads of state, including SA president Cyril Ramaphosa, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema, and Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa, attended the opening ceremony.
Afreximbank signed a letter of interest for US$ 250 million with Blue Horn Aviation and Logistics as well as deals worth US$274m and US$1.04bn with Mars Exploration and Production Company and the National Nigerian Petroleum Company, respectively, at the trade fair on Tuesday.
The National Nigerian Petroleum Company and Afreximbank’s US$1.04bn “Project Bison” is a five-year project export finance facility that will fund corporate purposes. The bank said that the finance would be repaid from the proceeds of crude oil lifting allocation.
According to the bank’s letter of interest signed with Blue Horn Aviation and Logistics, the finance would be focused on the “overall developmental impact associated with the project management of three airports in Nigeria, especially regarding providing trade-enabling infrastructure”.
Afreximbank noted at the trade fair that it wished to express its “non-binding interest to arrange, coordinate and support debt finance of up to US$250m to the firm.”
The MoU that the bank signed with the Smart Africa Alliance aims to create a single digital market in Africa as well as interoperable digital identification and digital cross-border payments.
