Côte d’Ivoire announces plans to increase investment in Afreximbank
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara today in Abidjan announced that the country planned to increase its investment in the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) by taking up its rights under the Bank’s ongoing general capital raising exercise.
In September 2014, Afreximbank Shareholders, in an Extraordinary General Meeting in Cairo, approved a $500-million share offering, in the form of paid up funds in order to increase the Bank’s capitalization, with the share offering allocated to existing shareholders on a pro rata basis according to their existing subscription levels.
President Ouattara, who was speaking in his office when he received an Afreximbank delegation led by Bank President Jean-Louis Ekra, accompanied by the President Designate, Dr. Benedict Oramah, said that as a founding member of the Bank, Cote d’Ivoire was committed to assisting it to deliver on its mandate of financing intra- and extra-African trade.
He commended Mr. Ekra for his achievements as President of the Bank and urged the Bank to enhance its support for the transformation of the Ivorian economy through increased financing for value-addition in the country’s key growth sectors, including agribusiness, oil and gas, mining and hospitality.
He also congratulated Dr. Oramah on emerging as the next President of the Bank and said that Côte d’Ivoire looked forward to greater cooperation with Afreximbank.
Earlier, President Ekra had said that the visit was to formally introduce the President Designate to the Ivorian authorities. He announced that since the opening of a Branch Office in Abidjan in May, the Bank’s deal pipeline to the Ivorian economy had risen to $275 million.
Also speaking, Dr. Oramah pledged to lead the Bank in accordance with the vision instituted by President Ekra, saying that he would work to ensure that the Bank continued to drive Africa’s economic transformation.
Present at the meeting were Kaba Nialé, Minister of Finance and Economy of Cote d’Ivoire; Marcel Amon-Tanoh, Director of the President’s Office, and Thierry Tanoh, Deputy Secretary-General in the Presidency.
The Afreximbank delegation had earlier held separate meetings with the Ivorian Prime Minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, and the Minister of Budget, Abdourahmane Cissé.