From Uche Usim, Abuja
With many countries aching from the destabilising effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) on Thursday launched a $2 billion facility to catalyse economic recovery and resilience in Africa.
The Corporation said it is funding up to 50 percent of the new African Economic Resilience Facility and mobilising the remainder through the its network of international partners and investors. The facility, which was unveiled in Abuja at the AFC Live Infrastructure Solutions Summit, will be disbursed through loans from AFC to selected commercial banks, regional development banks and Central Banks in various African countries. The AFC will also provide them with sufficient foreign currency liquidity to finance trade and other economic activities in their jurisdictions. These institutions will be able to leverage AFC’s proven access to global funding to receive financing at competitive rates to meet desired goals.
Speaking at the launch, the Head of Treasury and Financial Institutions, Banji Fehintola, stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic set back Africa’s economic growth trajectory and widened the trade financing gap, while the Russia-Ukraine conflict has added a further set of challenges negatively impacting growth prospects across the continent.
“We are determined to play a leading role in helping the continent’s recovery and resilience, not only though the work we do in bridging Africa’s infrastructure gap, but also through targeted interventions such as this $2 billion economic resilience facility.”
