OFID extends US$80m loan to boost trade in Africa

VIENNA, 5th December, 2021 (WAM) — The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has signed an US$80 million loan agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to finance international trade directly among corporates or through financial intermediaries.

The OPEC Fund’s support will assist in boosting Afreximbank’s liquidity to grow its loan portfolio as it finances exports and imports in critical sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and healthcare. The OPEC Fund’s loan will address trade challenges impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

OPEC Fund Director-General, Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, said, “As a catalyst for economic development and growth, international trade is key to support Africa’s post-COVID-19 recovery. We are pleased to cooperate with Afreximbank and to support their key initiative to make trade finance more accessible to African counterparties across the continent by reducing liquidity constraints.”

Afreximbank is a pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. The bank deploys innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa.

OFID was established in January 1976 by the then 13 member countries of OPEC, including the United Arab Emirates. It is the development finance institution established as an aid channel to developing countries.