AfDB, Others Vow to Strengthen Trade, Investment in Africa

The African Development Bank (AfDB), Afreximbank, and six other partners have reaffirmed their commitment to better leverage guarantee and insurance products in Africa.

In a statement issued on its website, AfDB, said the six partners were collaborating under the Africa Co-Guarantee Platform (CGP) to ensure more trade and investment across the continent.

It listed the partners to include; African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD), and GuarantCo (part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group).

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The other partners are the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit Insurance (ICIEC).

In his opening remarks, Kofi Asumadu-Addo, Afreximbank’s Director of Guarantees and Specialised Finance said the CGP was needed more than ever, especially with the macroeconomic challenges facing the continent. He noted that this is a critical moment and the CGP is needed more than ever.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine crisis and the consequent effects require urgent action on our part as risk mitigation providers. Collectively, we have the capacity among the Platform partners to respond adequately and appropriately to help de-risk and attract investments into and across Africa.

“We need to bring this to bear in order to reduce the trade and investment financing gap,” he said”.

Asumadu-Addo also reiterated the support of the Afreximbank to the CGP to deliver “concrete results”.

Also speaking, Max Ndiaye, AfDB’s acting Director of Syndications, Co-Financing and Client Solutions, said the platform was inaugurated in 2018 by the bank’s President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina.

Ndiaye said the inauguration was also with the senior leadership of the other partners.

The acting director said the platform was to help overcome the clear risk mitigation gap in Africa, which stood in the way of closing more trade and investment deals.

Furthermore, ATI’s Chief Underwriting Officer, Benjamin Mugisha, said the platform would leverage each member’s strengths to provide proactive solutions to address Africa’s needs.

He said: “the Co-Guarantee Platform has a unique opportunity to synergise its members’ shared vision and mandate and has committed to proactively do this going forward”.

Also, Ibrah Wahabou, AUDA-NEPAD’s Head of Infrastructure and Connectivity, said platform was Africa’s response to deal with the perception of Africa as a risky place for investors.

“The Co-Guarantee Platform is Africa’s bold response by Africa-based Development Finance Institutions and the African Union Development Agency to deal with the exaggerated, unjustified perception of Africa as a risky place for investors”.

Together, through the CGP, we are changing the narrative based on concrete deals.

However, GuarantCo Associate Director Ben Storrs said the platform hoped to build local capacity to enable use of innovative solutions.

“We look forward to supporting the development of the Co-Guarantee Platform and institutional partnerships to address Africa’s infrastructure challenges at a greater scale.

“Collectively, we hope to continue building local capacity to enable greater use of innovative credit mitigation solutions to unlock critical infrastructure financing.

”Bessem Soua, ICIEC’s Division Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, said the platform was an opportunity for multilateral partners to work together.

“The Co-Guarantee Platform is a unique opportunity for multilateral partners to work together on scaling up risk mitigation capacity to de-risk investments and trade in Africa.

The partners also inaugurated the CGP’s web presence to provide information about the platform and its partner institutions.