According to Afreximbank, promoting intra-African trade and the cultural industry is essential for economic and cultural development. According to the World Bank, trade within the African continent is expected to increase real income by 9% by 2035 and lift 50 million people out of extreme poverty. The creative and cultural industry also has the potential to promote the emergence of national and regional value chains according to experts.
Promoting trade between African countries offers enormous potential for sustainable economic development and integration. According to Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President, Kanayo Awani, the African Continental Free Trade Area, created to eliminate trade barriers between African countries and increase intra-African trade to USD 50-70 billion by 2040, the diaspora strategy linked to Afreximbank’s intra-African trade strategy, and the introduction of financial instruments enabling SMEs to obtain loans without having to provide collateral, are among the action plans designed to stimulate trade and economic growth within the African continent.
“we will intervene, promote, and facilitate, finance and bigger interventions to bear to the benefits of Africans wherever they are, whether they’re on the continent of Africa or whether they’re abroad. That’s the concept. And it speaks to a unified African. It speaks to an empowered African. It also speaks of a shared history. It speaks to a shared purpose. It speaks to a shared future”.
Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank – Nigeria
In promoting cultural development in the African continent the African Export-Import Bank aims to commercialize and support young talent in the creative industry with the Canex’s strategy underpinned by a USD 1 billion facility that can be deployed in the form of debt, equity, guarantees and risk-bearing instruments.
“So aside from the financing and bringing financial institutions together to support the creative, I’m advocating for more support. We expect that we’ll also use it to do capacity building because one of the gaps in the creative industry is lack of skills and capacity. We continue to run masterclasses in various fairs. These things go on even besides the events.We also want to use it as a platform to enable market access such that we expose our creatives to brands abroad in a place of fashion. expose them to investments, attraction opportunities, joint venture arrangements, venture capital.
Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank – Nigeria
Boosting intra-African trade, which according to the World Bank should increase real income by 9% by 2035, lifting 50 million people out of extreme poverty and development of the cultural industry by guaranteeing market access for young talent are all part of Afreximbank’s projects to stimulate economic and cultural growth in Africa.