The African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) has disbursed over a third of the US$25 billion facility that provides letters of credit (L/Cs) to facilitate intra-African trade, the bank's president and chairman has said.

Benedict Oramah said the US$25 million facility will be disbursed between the financial years ending 2017 to 2021.

Intra-African trade

"In the first year, we did US$8 billion. Disbursements are going to support normal L/Cs and trade financing that facilitates trade between African countries," Oramah said.

The bank is supporting trade in food and oil among other products he said. Afreximbank is also supporting the development of trade parks in Côte d'Ivoire and plans were underway to support more such parks in Nigeria, Togo, Malawi and Rwanda he added.

Upcoming trade fair

The lack information about trade and trade finance is constraining the growth of intra-African trade according to Oramah.

In an attempt to counter this, he says Afreximbank is co-organising the Intra-African Trade Fair to be held in December in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.