Afreximbank gets $100m Shariah-compliant facility

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) have signed a financing agreement of $100-million in the pursuit of increased trade within the continent. The bank will use the $100-million facility to provide Shariah-compliant financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in its member countries across Africa. 

Already, Afreximbank has a solid pipeline of projects in the industrial, communication, technology, healthcare, construction and agricultural sectors spread across the continent that would be financed by the ICD line of financing. Executive Vice President at Afreximbank, Amr Kamel, said: “This facility will give a boost to our effort to implement our current strategy which prioritizes intra-African trade; intra –African investments and export manufacturing of the labour intensive type. It will also promote our knowledge in Islamic finance and provide us with additional manoeuvring capacity in terms of product offerings to our clients.” 

Similarly, Chief Executive Officer of ICD, Khaled Al Aboodi, added: “The proposed financing facility is a token of a good partnership between ICD and Afreximbank, with the purpose of supporting private sector businesses with a Shariah-compliant facility structure in our common African member countries”. 

Afreximbank pointed out that the key economic and financial developmental impact of the financing will include the development of private sector, especially SMEs, to help expand the real economic growth based on value creation. It will also be promoting Islamic Finance based on the pipeline of Afreximbank projects, as well as have an impact on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in line with ICD’s strategic objectives. 

Guardian