The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the World Trade Centre Miami Inc (WTCM) have signed a three-year MoU agreement to mutually share knowledge, experience and capabilities to expand US-Africa business relations
Under the terms of the MoU, signed on 12 July 2018 during the Afreximbank Annual Meetings and 25th Anniversary Celebrations in Abuja, Afreximbank and WTCM will use their resources to strengthen the commercial partnership between countries in the Americas and Africa.
They will collaborate in Miami, the US, the Americas and throughout Africa to mobilise public and private sector support and resources to grow the opportunities for two-way trade and investment.
“Afreximbank’s trade fairs and trade shows are an important element in our strategy to develop and expand intra- and extra-African trade through the networking, guidance, information and deal-making opportunities that they provide,” said Dr Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank.
“Afreximbank is developing its offices into iconic business complexes, branded ‘Afreximbank – African Trade Centres,’ with one-stop trade services shops, which will include auditoriums, conference centres, trade information centres, export credit agencies, commercial banks and small business innovation and incubation hubs,” Oramah added.
This will work with the World Trade Centre Miami to access the World Trade Centre Association’s platform and its global network in order to develop our Afreximbank-African Trade Centres. “WTCM will also work with us to promote the Intra-African Trade Fair and other trade shows organised by the bank. They will provide advisory, counselling, marketing and guidance for our trade show planning,” Oramah further stressed.
Speaking on the collaboration during the event, Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, praised Afreximbank’s dynamism and tenacious leadership.
“Mindful that intra-African trade cannot flourish without a strong industrial base, we are pressing ahead with our effort to support the development of industrial parks and export processing zones across Africa,” stated Buhari.
He further announced that the bank had recently entered into partnerships with numerous third parties to support and finance economic and trade development and trade diversification across Africa, including with the African Guarantee Fund, Attijariwafa bank, China Eximbank, the Export Development Bank of Egypt, the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa, the Finance Center for South-South Cooperation, Kings College Hospital London, Indonesia Eximbank, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, the Made-in-Africa Initiative and the Russian Export Centre.
