Afreximbank supports Cote d’Ivoire public enterprises with €359m

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says it has provided financing totalling €359 million to four Ivorian public enterprises.

In a press release issued in Cairo February 19, 2015 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the Bank’s president Jean-Louis Ekra was cited as saying, the Bank provided the financing as part of its Country Programme for Cote d’Ivoire under which the Board of Directors had set aside $550 million in 2013 to support and facilitate Cote d’Ivoire’s economic recovery after the extended political crisis that confronted it.

The enterprises that benefited are Societe des Transports Abidjanais (SOTRA), Compagnie Ivoirienne de Developpement des Textiles (CIDT), Port Autonome d’Abidjan, and Banque Nationale d’Investissements (BNI).

The release noted that the Bank also granted €30 million to BNI for onward lending to Ivorian small and medium-sized enterprises which may not meet the criteria for accessing financing directly from Afreximbank, while 29 million Euros was granted to CIDT for the purchase of inputs and cotton grains for its agricultural campaign.

“The first facility granted by Afreximbank under the Country Programme for Cote d’Ivoire was a $320 million-facility to the Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) to enable it import urgently needed crude following the end of the post-electoral crisis in the country. SIR repaid that facility in full after only utilising it twice,” Ekra was quoted as saying.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi