CARICOM | African Export-Import Bank Allocates US $1.5 billion funding for CARICOM Partners

MONTEGO BAY,  December 27, 2022 - The Africa Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) 2022, held in Barbados in September is beginning to pay dividends. The Board of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has made available US$1.5 billion, to enable CARICOM member states that have ratified the Partnership Agreement with Afreximbank, to tap into the Bank’s various financial instruments.

The Afreximbank Partnership Agreement was launched on 1 September 2022, at the first Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) held in Bridgetown, Barbados, at which time nine CARICOM member countries acceded to the agreement.

The Barbados Parliament recently ratified the agreement which is in the process of being ratified by the other eight signatories. The treaty remains open for accession to the six  CARICOM members that have yet to sign.

Wiredja understands  that Jamaica is one of the six countries that is yet to sign the agreement and ratify the treaty, hence will not be eligible to participate or tap into the Bank’s various financial instruments at this time. Jamaica was not represented at a Ministerial level at the Forum. Jamaica was represented by its Ambassador to the ACS / High Commisioner to Trinidad, who could not sign until the matter had gone before Cabinet and received approval.

At the opening of the Africa Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum Prime Minister Mia Mottley in delivering the keynote address, pointed out that the proposed establishment of an Africa Caribbean Export Import Bank in the region was critical to unlocking further economic and social benefits for the region at a time when such support was badly needed.

She told the audience that the bank would be accorded the same privileges and immunities here like the Caribbean Development Bank when the decision is made to set up operations.

Ms. Mottley noted that Trinidad and Tobago had led the way with the Republic Bank operations in Ghana and disclosed there were other dominant banks on the continent willing to set up in the region at a time when the decades’ dominance of Canadian banks in the Caribbean was shrinking.

“The ability for us to be able to have a Caribbean Export Import Bank with our partners in the Africa Export Import Bank is too critical a possibility for us in this region, and for unlocking further the benefits of the Caribbean Single Market and Single Economy, for us to ignore at this stage,” she stated.

Ms. Mottley insisted that although our peoples have worked together for more than a century in the various Pan-African congresses, the political union political cooperation, though essential were not sufficient “for the journey that must be made to reverse the underdevelopment of Africa and the underdevelopment of the Caribbean”.

“We the children of Independence, have determined that we shall not allow another generation to pass without bringing together that which should never have been torn asunder.  We face common battles from the climate crisis to the COVID pandemic. And, now to the third aspect of it, with respect to inflation and debt, that threaten to tear too many of our countries apart and threaten to put back into poverty too many of our people. 

Given this situation, the Prime Minster called on leaders to seize the moment to reclaim their destiny.  She said: “…I come here today to ask us to seize the moment…It is within our grasp… We have the collective brainpower, the collective creativity, the innate discipline and resilience and above all else, yes, the capital between Africa and the Caribbean to make that defining difference.  We have begun to understand that when we know each other, business becomes that much easier.”

PM Mottley and eight other Caribbean leaders signed the partnership agreement with President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Afrieximbank, Professor Benedict Oramah.

Upon accession to the agreement, CARICOM member countries become Participating States in Afreximbank, conferring on the Bank the same privileges and immunities that it enjoys in the African Participating States that acceded to its Establishment Agreement. It unlocks the commencement of Afreximbank’s operations in the Caribbean.

The Partnership Agreement between Afreximbank and the constituent countries of CARICOM consolidates the Bank’s efforts to promote and develop South-South trade and specifically trade between Africa and the Caribbean in line with its Diaspora Strategy.

Afreximbank defines intra-African trade as the flow of goods and services between or among African countries as well as the flow of goods and services between Africa and Africans in the Diaspora.

The US$1.5 billion financing approved by the Board of Directors of Afreximbank enables CARICOM countries to access the Bank’s  financing instruments through financing facilities that support various identified economic sectors including tourism, healthcare, renewable energy, shipping, mining, agriculture and agribusiness, air links, and aquaculture.

Afreximbank will also work to support local financial institutions to source finance for SMEs. These key sectors were identified following several Afreximbank-led business development and trade and investment promotion missions to the Caribbean.

According to Afreximbank’s Chairman Professor Benedict Oramah,“This approval by our Board of Directors of US$1.5 billion in funding is another giant step in the historic reconnection we are successfully forging between Africa and the Caribbean. 

Afreximbank is now all set to operate in the CARICOM member countries which we are pleased to welcome as Participating States in the Bank. We look forward to having all CARICOM members on board to maintain the extraordinary momentum we have been building since we met at the Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum in September 2022, and to respond together, through trade, to the development needs of the people of both our regions.”  

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