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| Afreximbank (Photo: Guardian) |
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is providing a three-year
US$300mn revolving global credit facility to Export Trading Company (ETC), a
subsidiary of Export Trading Group, to support its agricultural trade business
across Africa.
The agreement will according to Afreximbank president Benedict Oramah
“address some of the difficulties faced by small and medium-scale enterprises
operating in agro-processing and light manufacturing sub-sectors, in
effectively competing in international trade and increasing their participation
in regional and global agricultural value chains”.
ETC is an agricultural supply chain manager specialising in African commodities.
By financing ETC’s activities, the idea is to help African farmers access new
regional and international markets.Their activities involves warehousing,
shipping, insuring and billing on behalf of the client.
Export trading
companies may help manufacturers find overseas buyers and providing them with
other pertinent market information.
Oramah describes the firm as “a catalyst for the growth of intra-African
trade”, noting that it is creating “strong and reliable agricultural value
chains across Africa” by bringing agricultural produce from the farm gate to
processing facilities and processed and manufactured goods to the market.
Specifically, the facility will fund the sourcing, processing and
transportation of soft commodities of African origin, and support procurement
of key agricultural inputs, such as fertiliser, seeds and other chemicals,
which would be supplied across the continent.
The facility is provided as part of Afreximbank’s intra-African trade
strategy, in which the bank commits to support the emergence and expansion of
export trading companies as a quick way of accelerating the growth of
intra-African trade.
