LIMITED KNOWLEDGE ABOUT TRADE OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENTS TO INTRA-AFRICAN TRADE

Written by Fumnanya Agbugah

On Saturday, the Executive Vice President for Business Development and Corporate Banking at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Amr Kamel, said that limited knowledge about trade opportunities in African countries was one of the biggest impediments to intra-African trade. This was made known while speaking during a panel discussion at the Africa 2017 Forum, organized in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

“Contrary to the popular view that lack of infrastructure was the biggest challenge to intra-African trade, such trade was actually being held back mainly because people in one African country lacked information about trade opportunities in other African countries,” said Kamel.

He noted, for instance, that a recent study co-sponsored by Afreximbank showed that some African countries were importing certain products at high cost from outside Africa while the same products were available at much lower costs in nearby African countries.

Kamel said that the fact that Africa was able to support the current level of overall trade with its existing infrastructure meant that infrastructure was not necessarily the issue but rather the challenge was how to make more of that trade intra-African.

He expressed satisfaction that African countries were gradually beginning to realize that intra-African trade held the key to Africa’s development.

Kamel announced that Afreximbank was building certification centres in an attempt to help address the issue of the quality of goods produced in African countries. Having the goods certified to international standards would make them acceptable exports into the international markets.

Timothy McPherson Jr., Minister of Finance of Jamaica, said that the African Diaspora was key to the continent’s integration as its members thought of investment in Africa in terms of the entire continent rather than segmenting it into countries and regions.

What you didn’t know about Afreximbank

• Afrexim Bank is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting African trade.
• It was established under two basic constitutive instruments which are the agreement signed by the member states and multilateral organisations, which gives the bank the status of an international multilateral organization and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations.
• The bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors.
• Afrexim Bank commenced operations on 30 September 1994, following the signature of a headquarters agreement with the host government in August 1994.
• Since 1994, it has approved more than 51 billion dollars in credit facilities for African businesses, including about 10.3 billion dollars in 2016.
• Afreximbank has total assets of 9.4 billion dollars as at April 30, 2016.
• The Bank is rated BBB+ (GCR), Baa1 (Moody’s), and BBB- (Fitch).
• The bank is based in Cairo, Egypt.
• Countries currently on the list of Afreximbank participating and shareholding states include Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, and Lesotho. Others are Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Source: http://venturesafrica.com/limited-knowledge-about-trade/