The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will source 1.5 billion dollars to support projects and initiatives under Burkina Faso’s five-year development plan, the bank’s President, Dr Benedict Oramah, said on Friday.
Oramah made the pledge when a delegation of the bank visited Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the President of Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou.
Oramah said the bank had identified 15 out of the 83 projects in the development plan for financing.
According to him, the 15 projects are in trade financing, agro-processing, renewable energy, telecommunications, tourism and logistics.
“We selected projects that match the key pillars of our new strategic plan, IMPACT 2021.
“It focuses on boosting intra-African trade, accelerating Africa’s industrialisation, developing the continent’s export capacity and increasing its access to trade finance.”
“Since Burkina Faso became a member of the bank, we have provided sizeable amounts of trade finance facilities to local entities operating in its textile, oil and gas and banking sectors,” Oramah said in a statement.
Kaboré was quoted to have commended Afreximbank for its commitment and interventions to the country.
“As a landlocked country, the development of logistics infrastructure is at the heart of Burkina Faso’s economic prosperity to achieve greater regional integration which is a key driver for national growth.
“We are planning to set-up regional processing factories for the transformation of the raw materials we have in common with neighbouring countries, such as cotton,” Kaboré said.
Afreximbank is a foremost pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade.
The bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors and non-African investors.
The bank is headquartered in Cairo. (NAN)
