Pan African multilateral bank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), has said it will expand its regional financing limit for the The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to US$5 billion over the next four years.
- •Afreximbank has disbursed $750 million disbursed across the region and has a pipeline of over $2 billion in transactions currently under execution.
- •The institution is planning to build an Afreximbank African Trade Centre in Bridgetown, Barbados, and to establish a Caribbean Eximbank to consolidate its presence in the region.
- •CARICOM Central Bank Governors are also currently working on a CARICOM Payment and Settlement System, modelled on PAPSS, which Afreximbank pioneered in 2022.
“We will [] increase the global limit to this region from the current US$3 billion to US$5 billion, with the hope of achieving full utilisation over the next three to four years,” Dr. Elombi said at the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the CARICOM in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, on 25 February.
Dr. Elombi said that specific interventions by the Bank would include developing healthcare facilities in Barbados, Guyana, and Grenada; supporting tourism projects in Barbados, Grenada, Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda; financing agro-processing projects and logistics facilities in Barbados, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis; and supporting infrastructure development, including power generation and distribution and road projects, conferencing facilities and trade centres, in Grenada, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Suriname.
Others were providing financing support for banks in Suriname, St Lucia, Grenada, and Dominica, including an SME-focused on-lending facility to development banks in the region.
He said that the Bank is working with African entities, such as Access Bank, Oando and Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP), to enable them establish their presence in the region. Arise IIP is currently exploring the establishment of special economic zones in a number of countries.
