Egypt to finish Afreximbank repayments next week

CAIRO – 6 December 2017: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) paid $600 million to the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Wednesday, with the last $600 million to be repaid next Monday, CBE governor Tarek Amer announced.

Speaking to state-owned news agency MENA, Amer said that the total amount of payments owed to the African bank was $3.2 billion, where Egypt disbursed $2 billion of them earlier this week.

“The CBE has repaid $4.6 billion in foreign debts since November… adding the latest Afreximbank installments, the value will reach $5.2 billion,” Amer explained.

The total due to the African Bank was $5.2 billion in September, said Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah at the time.

Afreximbank’s contributions in Egypt included supporting the Egypt-Africa Trade Promotion Program with up to $500 million.

The bank is also working with the Export Development Bank of Egypt to create export credit support schemes to enable exporters to compete in other African countries, providing $1.5 billion.

Afreximbank is also assisting Egyptian Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) to grow and boost their exports.

Egypt’s foreign debt amounted to nearly $79 billion at the end of fiscal year 2016/2017, ending on July 30, 2017, according to CBE.

The governor said in October that Egypt is committed to repaying the $13 billion to international institutions by the end of 2018, affirming that the CBE is committed to maintain the country’s foreign reserves at $36 billion level.