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AfDB provides $310 million trade finance loan to Ecobank
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- The intervention will support vital economic sectors such as agri-business, chemicals, construction, engineering, food processing, manufacturing and non-traditional exports.
The African Development Bank has approved a $310 million trade finance loan for Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), according to a statement released on Tuesday. The AfDB said its trade finance intervention will address the critical market demand for trade finance and dollar liquidity by supporting vital economic sectors such as agri-business, chemicals, construction, engineering, food processing, manufacturing and non-traditional exports.
The facility is also expected to foster financial sector development, provide a platform to support intra-Africa and regional trade, and support financing of medium-term infrastructure projects. When fully utilised, the AfDB said its interventions are expected to facilitate about $2 billion worth of trade over a three-and-a-half-year period.
“The intervention comes at a time of falling commodity prices which have caused shortages in foreign exchange supply and led to unmet demand for trade finance instruments to support ongoing structural changes in the respective economies in Sub-Saharan Africa,” the Abidjan multilateral lender said. “Through the Ecobank branch network across Sub-Saharan Africa, the project will mainly support small and medium enterprises and local companies involved in import export activity.”
ETI is one of the largest banking groups in Africa with operations in 36 African countries and over 19,000 employees spread across 1,305 branches and offices. In its 2016 half-year report, ETI said revenues fell 0.2 percent year-on-year to N273.4 billion ($1.3 billion), while after-tax profit fell 34 percent to N31.5 billion ($152.3 million).
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