National Bank of Ethiopia, Afreximbank Sign MoU to Collaborate on Areas of Common Interest​​

Addis Ababa February 8/2022/ENA/ The National Bank of Ethiopia and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today to collaborate on areas of common interest, particularly trade and investment.

African Export-Import Bank will provide more than 1 billion USD to designated Ethiopian banks upon implementation of the agreement to financially support the trade and investment of private and public sectors in the country in the form of line credits.

National Bank of Ethiopia Governor Yinager Dessie, and Afreximbank President and Chairman, Professor Benedict Oramah signed the MoU.

National Bank of Ethiopia Governor, Yinager Dessie on the occasion stated that the MoU is signed at a critical time when the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic spectrums of the country.

“Our bilateral cooperation, that we forged at this critical time when the impact of COVID-19 pandemic has been felt throughout the economic and social spectrum, aims at creating a broad framework for collaboration in areas of common interest, particularly in the field of trade and investment, which are critical elements for our socio economic growth and development, job creation and poverty reduction,” Yinager said.

"Upon implementation of the MoU we signed today, Afreximbank will provide us with over 1 billion USD credit to be distributed to the public and private banks for the private sector,” he explained.

The cooperation between the banks extends to supporting the private and public sector by providing line of credit to financial institutions, it was indicated.

Afreximbank President and Chairman, Professor Benedict Oramah, who praised the years of investments and reform in Ethiopia that proved resilient economy during the pandemic, expressed the bank’s commitment to support Ethiopia’s development and growth, partnering with domestic institutions.

“Through this MoU, we affirm our collective determination to accelerate the ongoing collaboration and to strengthen the financial and corporate sectors, which are engines of sustainable development in this country.”

The bank has identified numerous trade and investment opportunities in Ethiopia and decided to work with the national bank and other designated local banks in the country to scale up trade and investment productivity, he noted.

“Even when major developing economies witnessed growth contraction at the height of the pandemic, Ethiopia proved its resilience by maintaining a robust growth trajectory posting a commendable 6.1 percent growth rate in 2020,” he said citing to World Bank data.

“It must be one of the few countries in the world that achieved this fate. Every Ethiopian must be very proud of this outcome,”  Professor Oramah added.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) will help African countries, including Ethiopia to harness domestic resources and benefit from continental trade and the bank will contribute its part financially, he noted.

African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a pan-African multilateral trade finance institution created in 1993 under the auspices of the African Development Bank.

It is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. Afreximbank's vision is to be the trade finance bank for Africa.

Ethiopia is party to the African Export-Import Bank, but the collaboration with its government and financial institutions was not encouraging.