New Telegraph

Africa gets $13 billion relief from Afreximbank- Oramah

 

President of Afreximbank, Cairo, Prof. Benedict Oramah, has described the African Continental Free Trade Zone Agreement, (AfCFTA) as a new normal which will change the face of trade across the African continent.

He said following the collapse of commodity prices in 2015 and the consequent recession in many African countries, Afrexim disbursed $6 billion through the Counter-Cyclical Trade Liquidity Facility, (COTRALF), with Nigeria pocketing $1.8 billion, followed by the disbursement of $7 billion to African countries as part of its COVID-19 Response Funds, wherein Nigeria received $1billion.

Speaking at the launch of a festschrift, titled “The New Normal As Option for Sustainable Development in Nigeria.” written in honour of the former Vice President of the African Development Bank, (AfDB), Dr. Olabisi Ogunjobi in Lagos, Oramah said that the components of the trade agreement have the propensity to transform trade on the continent.

In a message read on his behalf by the Regional Chief Operations Officer of the Bank, in charge of Anglophone West Africa, Mr. Eric Monchu Intong, Oramah mentioned such components like MANSA, KYC platform, PAPSS, TIP, TRIP, AfCTTA, adjustment funds and Afreximbank-Africa Collaborative Guarantee Scheme, Harmonization of Standards and Rules of Origin for Goods to be traded under AfCFTA

Oramah, who described the honouree as an accomplished development economist, consultant, public policy analyst, author, philanthropist and a youth mentor, stated that there was no better way to immortalise what Nigeria went through during the COVID-19 pandemic than to chronicle it in a book of this nature for generations to read and be inspired.

Speaking about the 330-page book split into 22 chapters contributed by over 20 experts, who discussed security, finance and budgeting, trade restrictions and governance and COVID-19 responses on the African continent, Oramah said: “Our schools and universities will use the book to educate the younger generation to learn how to fend for themselves even in time of crises,” adding that the book encapsulates the lessons learned and how Nigeria and even Africa can take their destiny in their hands and proffer African solution to Africa problem.

Earlier, Chairman of the occasion and former Vice Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof. Michael Faborode, commended Glorious Vision University for publishing the book which interrogated sustainable public economic recovery in Nigeria, security, globalization and social justice, fallow state of Africa, foreign direct investment and Afreximbank as catalyst for intra-Africa trade and investment.

 

In their messages to the occasion, Chairman, House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Hon. Bunmi T. Ojo, Executive Chairman, MidOil Refinery, Mrs. Elizabeth Akintonde, extolled the virtues of Dr. Ogunjobi and his commitment to banking and finance as well as scholarship

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