African Trade Insurance Agency invests $25b in member countries
The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) says it has cumulatively supported $25 billion worth of trade and investments into its member countries since inception.
During its 17th Annual General Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya , the ATI urged African governments to intently focus on growing intra-African trade and diversifying their economies away from commodity reliance in order to reduce vulnerability to external shocks.
“With sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP growth rates expected to hit a record low of 1.5 per cent, depressed commodity rates are seen to be one of the major drivers with export producers accounting for two-thirds of the region’s growth,” it said.
In a press release issued today, May 11, 2017 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the pan-African investment and credit risk insurer said it posted record results for the sixth consecutive year.
“ATI has moved from being loss making as recently as 2011 to posting a positive net result representing a 36 per cent increase over 2015. Among other factors, ATI attributes this success to stronger partnerships with African governments, who increasingly see the value of ATI to their growth and development objectives,” it added.
The insurer indicated that in 2016, its impact in Africa and globally, continued to increase.
“In the last six months, the company attracted new members Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and earlier in 2016, the UK’s export credit agency, UKEF. ATI also insured $4 billion worth of trade and investments into its African member countries while backing strategic projects such as the $159 million loan from the African Development Bank to support Ethiopian Airline’s fleet expansion. ATI also underwrote the first deal in a non-member country in Angola in first quarter 2017, reflecting the company’s new pan-African mandate,” it said.
Ghana is not yet a member of the ATI. The country since 2013 has been urged to speed up the process of becoming a member, so it can benefit from the opportunities available for member-countries.
Started in 2011, only 13 of the 54 countries in Africa are members. These are Burundi, Kenya, Benin, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Ivory Coast.
It has other institutional members that include the African Development Bank.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi