Afreximbank and Access Bank signed a $220 million capital mobilization agreement for investments in the Caribbean and more generally in the CARICOM financial services sector. FEDA and Access Bank are partners in this venture.
Access Corporation's group managing director, Herbert Wigwe, made this announcement on Monday at the Georgetown, Guyana-based 2023 AfriCaribbean trade and investment event.
At the panel discussion titled "One Year of Afro-Caribbean Trade and Investment Revival: Lessons from Experience," operations manager Chima Okafor spoke on behalf of the signing, explaining that the goal of the agreement was to create a credit mechanism to encourage investment and to fortify financial services in the Caribbean to support regional economic growth and development initiatives.
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“We have great news today, Access Bank and the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA) working with Afreximbank will be announcing $220 million in capital mobilisation, which is anchored by Access Bank to invest in the Caribbean or broadly the CARICOM financial services sector.
According to him, the bank would mobilize over $2 billion in loan opportunities in the Caribbean for infrastructure and production finance, owing to the multiplier effect of banking capital.
“Access bank is extremely excited, for today to be the beginning of a journey that we know will yield a lot of good fruit, a lot of good growth, yield a lot of trade and further investment between Africa and the Caribbean. I am looking forward to a journey ahead spearheaded by Access bank,” he said.
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He pointed out that many European banks, in particular, had left Africa over the past ten to fifteen years. Access Bank revealed earlier this year that it had acquired five of Standard Chartered Bank's subsidiaries. Standard Chartered had decided to leave these nations for reasons that were likely similar to those observed in the Caribbean.
“I will say speaking to compliance is one of the reasons for many of these international banks are leaving the countries,” he said.
Executive Vice-President of the Intra-African Trade Bank at Afreximbank Kanayo Awani pointed out from the International Trade Center's (ITC) study that just 0.1% of exports come from Africa. According to the statistics from the previous year, commerce is likewise less than 1% between the Caribbean and Africa. It is mostly made up of chemicals and minerals. The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago are the only two nations in the Caribbean that currently control the majority of trade. She mentioned the matter of market entry cost as well.
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