Afreximbank Board approves $1.5b financing for Caribbean countries

The Board of Directors of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved $1.5 billion financing to enable member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that have ratified the Partnership Agreement with Afreximbank to access the Bank’s financial instruments.

The $1.5 billion financing approved would enable 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.

In a statement copied to Ghana Business News, the Bank says the approval follows the accession of nine CARICOM member countries to the Afreximbank Partnership Agreement which was launched on 1 September 2022, at the first Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) held in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Recently ratified by Barbados and in the process of being ratified by the other 8 signatories, the treaty remains open for accession to the six CARICOM members that have yet to sign, the statement said.

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

The statement further indicates that the Partnership Agreement between the Bank 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.