Expedite Admission Of Afreximbank As Specialized Agency – Akufo-Addo To African Union Commission

President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has called on the African Union (AU) Commission to as a matter of importance, expedite the process that will lead to the admission of Afreximbank a one of several specialized agencies of the AU.

The admission of Afreximbank as a specialized agency just like the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), will foster a strong relationship between the two agencies (Afreximbank and AfCFTA) and support the implementation of AfCFTA.

Call for expedition

The President made the called when he addressed participants at the opening ceremony of the 30th Afreximbank Annual Meeting at the Accra International Conference Centre on Monday 19 June 2023.

“I call on the African Union (AU) Commission to expedite the process of admitting Afreximbank as a specialized agency of the Africa Union at the forth coming July AU summit.

“Afreximbank has played a major role in the development of our countries over the years and is expected to play an even more important role during the implementation of the AfCFTA,” President Akufo-Addo said.

“The AfCFTA is already a specialized agency for our development and it is time we formalized the process to strengthen further the coordination to enhance its development impact” the President added.

Support for Afreximbank

In his address, President Akufo-Addo pointed out that Africa is dealing with strong global financial institutions and that should draw the continent’s attention to the fact that it needs to grow its own powerful international financial institution it can fall on in time of need like the continent experienced during the commodity super cycle in 2015 and COVID-19 pandemic 2020.

“It is often said that you know who is truly your friend when you are in trouble and as rightly stated by Dr Martin Luther King in an often-cited quote, “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

“When you are dealing with powerful international financial institutions, it is important to have your own powerful financial institution” President Akufo-Addo who is also the AU champion of financial institution stated.

The Afreximbank

Afreximbank shared purpose is to stimulate a consistent expansion and diversification of African trade so as to rapidly increase Africa’s share of global trade.

In doing so, the bank seeks to operate as a first class, profit-oriented, socially responsible financial institution and a center of excellence in African trade matters.

The bank’s shared vision is to consolidate the its position as “The Trade Finance Bank for Africa”. Achieving its vision, the banks notes, is dependent on its ability to successfully execute effectively a strategy around four strategic pillars, which are “Promote Intra-African Trade,” “Facilitate Industrialization and Export Development,” “Strengthen Trade Finance Leadership” and “Improve Financial Performance and Soundness”.

The mission of the bank is “to stimulate a consistent expansion, diversification and development of African trade, while operating as a first class, profit-oriented, socially responsible financial institution and a center of excellence in African trade matters.

Afreximbank offers a range of financing programmes, solutions and advisory services to support the expansion, diversification, promotion and development of intra- and extra-African trade and trade development projects.

Under its 5th strategic plan (2017-2021), the Bank has identified Industrialisation and Export Development (I&ED) as one of the pillars that would help to deliver on its mandate.

The export development department therefore supports the I&ED pillar through the following mechanisms: Facilitating and financing Africa’s manufactured exports in particular for agro-processing and light manufacturing sectors and developing and establishing Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones across the African continent.

Addressing Africa’s infrastructure constraints debilitating industrialization and export development, facilitating and enabling market access of Africa’s manufactured exports; and supporting export of services (medical services, tourism, are also other areas of focus for the bank in the development of the export sector.

From Wilberforce Asare