Afreximbank signs $500M with Export Development Bank of Egypt

CAIRO - 8 December 2017: The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed an agreement to provide $500 million with the Export Development Bank of Egypt (EBE).

On the sidelines of the Africa 2017 Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh, the loan aims at supporting exports and investments by Egyptian businesses to other African countries.

The agreement, which is titled ‘The Export Credit Support Scheme (ECSS)’, was signed by Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, and Mervat Soltan, chairperson of EBE.

Beneficiaries of the loan must be exporters located in Egypt and the products must be of Egyptian origin while the importers must be African origins and located in one of Afreximbank’s member countries.

“The ECSS would assist Egyptian exporters to develop their industries and boost their exports into other African countries, thereby enabling the exporters to compete on near equal footing with exporters from the more developed economies,” Oramah said.

The scheme will provide for support from the Export Credit Guarantee Company of Egypt, in which the EBE holds majority ownership, to partially cover and share transaction risk.