Afreximbank targets intra African trade to be $250B by 2021

CAIRO – 19 December 2017: The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) aims at increasing trade between African countries to $250 billion by 2021, the bank said on Monday in a statement.

Addressing her speech during a meeting in the Egyptian Federation of Industries Kanayo Awani Managing Director of Intra-African Trade Initiative said Afreximbank has an ambitious plan to raise Intra-African trade to $250 billion by 2021from the current value which stands at $170 billion.

She added that the Intra-African trade is 15 percent of Africa world trade, noting that this amount is still unsatisfied.

Egypt's main export partners are Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy and the United States whereas In Africa, Egypt's main export partners are Libya and Sudan, which receive less than 2 percent of exports.

Trade between Egypt and African countries witnessed a noticeable increase in 2016, the trade volume amounted to around $4.8 billion against $4.5 billion n in 2015, Minister of Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil said in late August.

Sharif El-Gebali, chairman of the African Cooperation Committee of the Egyptian Federation of Industries, said that the Egyptian state is very interested in supporting its relations with African countries, adding the recent Africa conference in Sharm el-Sheikh has produced many important results to boost economic and trade cooperation between Egypt and Africa.

He pointed out that the volume of Egyptian exports to Africa reached 6 percent (a $1.2 billion) in 2016, describing it as modest volume, calling for more efforts to help raising these amounts to be satisfied figures.