The African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, in collaboration with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) has announced the launch of a $1.5 billion collaborative COVID-19 Pandemic Response Facility (COPREFA), aimed at supporting African countries with finance to navigate the economic impact of the pandemic.
The Bank announced this on Wednesday in a statement that the funds will be made available to African Central Banks and Trade organizations and will also be used to finance equipment needed to deal with food security challenges.
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Part of the statement says that “COPREFA is designed to support African economies to overcome myriads of challenges including commodity price shocks, a significant drop in tourism and disruption to supply chains and export manufacturing.”
“It will also address the sudden declines in financial flows, including a drop-off in trade and project finance, migrant remittances, portfolio investment, and Foreign Direct Investments.”
The Pan-African multilateral trade finance institution also stated that the support will be done through regular channels including direct funding, lines of credit, confirmation, and refinancing of documentary credits.
In March 2020, a financial package called the Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) was launched solely by Afreximbank to support economies through the pandemic, a facility of which over five billion dollars has been disbursed will be implemented alongside COPREFA.”
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Afrexim President, Benedict Oramah, said the scheme will work with other schemes in Africa to help the continent battle the economic downturn.
Also, in April, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) headed by Akinwumi Adesina announced the provision of a $10 billion COVID-19 Response Facility for Nigeria and other regional member countries to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, the bank disbursed $200 million to Zenith Bank Plc Nigeria, in a bid to support critical imports under emergency conditions, and maintain foreign currency trade flows impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.