The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, has signed ten major Trade Financing Agreements worth more than US$1.2 Billion.
It also signed Trade Development Agreements with its member countries from Asia and Africa, at the 46th IsDB Annual Meeting of the IsDB Group held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan earlier this month.
The framework agreements, which provide public and private sector financing, as well as Trade Related Technical Assistance programs for export development and SME development initiatives, target high growth industries including agricultural and energy and support the purchase of critical medical supplies.
ITFC CEO, Mr Hani Salem Sonbol, commented: “We are proud to have signed 10 trade financing and the trade development agreement at the 46th IsDB Annual Meeting.
The impact of these agreements will be significant for ordinary citizens and will greatly enhance their economic prosperity.
This significant milestone also reaffirms the mutual trust between our member countries throughout CIS and Africa regions and the ITFC teams.
Furthermore, ITFC is dedicated to support economic growth among OIC member countries, especially during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic period.”
Agreement:
Signing of an Addendum to the US$ 1.5 billion Framework Agreement between ITFC & Burkina Faso:
A 5-Year US$1.5 billion Framework Agreement between ITFC and the Government of Burkina Faso was initially signed in October 2018 to set the key areas of cooperation. Following the global crisis linked to COVID-19,
ITFC CEO and H.E Lassane Kabore Minister of Economy, Finance & Development of Burkina Faso signed an Addendum to the revised Framework Agreement.
“ITFC will contribute to finance priority projects in Burkina Faso in the agriculture sector, health sector and the private sector, including but not limited to export of agricultural commodities and import of energy commodities,
“Such as refined petroleum products, provision of financing to secure the import of medicines and health equipment, and the implementation of technical assistance programs for strategic sectors of the national economy.’’
Signing of several Murabaha Agreements under the action plan for 2021 between ITFC and Mauritania: Mohamed Lemine Ould Dehbi, Minister of Finance, Mauritania along with ITFC CEO signed a Murabaha Trade Financing Agreement to support the health sector of the country.
As part of this agreement, ITFC will provide US$10 million to CAMEC, the government entity in charge of distributing medicine in the public sector, and a further US$20 million to SNIM, the second largest African producer of iron ore and a major player in the country’s economy.
A renewal of the facility with SOMELEC, a state-owned company with responsibility to ensure energy security in the country (production of electricity) was also signed to support the national development goals in the energy sector.
Amendment to Framework Agreement with Uzbekistan.
A US$500 million Agreement was signed between ITFC and the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2019. The purpose of the Amendment is to expand the cooperation by including new areas, extend the validity of the Agreement by an additional one year, make clarifications in the existing text and most importantly to increase the tenor of financing from 12 months to 24 months.
This extension will enable ITFC to better serve the financing needs of the Government entities and the private sector in Uzbekistan. This was signed by Mr. Shukhrat Vafaev, Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan (IsDB Alternate Governor).
