Chigozie Amadi
Nigeria has acceded to the establishment agreement for the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the development impact investment platform of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
Nigeria joined the ranks of countries acceding to the establishment agreement of FEDA, becoming the 16th nation to do so, underscoring the increasing backing the fund enjoys among African nations, according to a statement released by the bank.
FEDA is a 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.
It pursues a multi-sector investment strategy along the intra-African trade, value-added export development, and manufacturing value chain which includes financial services, technology, consumer and retail goods, manufacturing, transport & logistics, agribusiness, as well as ancillary trade enabling infrastructure such as industrial parks.
This announcement came three decades following Afreximbank’s establishment in Nigeria, a key milestone that it said 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 industrialisation, intra-African trade and value-added exports.
“The signing of the FEDA establishment agreement is expected to pave the way for the ratification of the agreement in due course. This will in turn bolster FEDA’s interventions in Nigeria,” the continental bank said.
President of Afreximbank and Chairman of the Boards of both Afreximbank and FEDA, Prof. Benedict Oramah, commenting on the latest development, noted that the partnership will enhance investments in sectors critical to the development journey of Nigeria.
“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,” the bank’s chief executive stated.
AfreximBank listed other countries that had acceded to FEDA’s establishment agreement to include: Rwanda, Mauritania, Guinea, Togo, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
Others are: Chad, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Príncipe, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Egypt.
Afreximbank is a pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. For 30 years, the bank said it has been deploying innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade.
It said it is also accelerating industrialisation and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa and is a stalwart supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
At the end of December 2023, Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees stood at over $37.3 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to $6.1 billion. The bank said it disbursed more than $104 billion between 2016 and 2023.
