Afreximbank hosts African Ambassadors to Cairo, Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Officials
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) was delighted to host African Ambassadors in Cairo and officials of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Egyptian Ambassadors awaiting deployment to African countries, to a high-level dinner briefing reception in Cairo on 4th October 2022. The reception delegation was led by Dr. George Elombi, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President, in charge of Governance, Corporate and Legal Services.
The briefing dinner was organised to enhance relations with the African Ambassadors, as representatives of their respective African Governments – the principal owners of the Bank. The briefing session was jointly chaired by the Dean of African Ambassadors in Egypt, the Ambassador of Cameroon to Egypt, His Excellency Dr Mohamadou Labarang, and the Assistant Under-secretary for African Affairs, Mr. Sherif Eissa.
Recognising that the occasion coincides with a period in which many African countries are confronting the economic cost of the Ukraine crisis, the reception provided a key opportunity for Afreximbank to explain its Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Finance Programme for Africa (UKAFPA), designed to shore-up trade liquidity among African countries most impacted by the Ukraine crisis and to ensure access to essential imports, including oil, fertilisers, and wheat.
The Bank also presented Afreximbank’s strategic plan to Ambassadors, a programme closely aligned to – and derivative of – the continental aspirations encapsulated in Africa Union’s “Agenda 2063: the Africa We Want”. Also presented to guests were Afreximbank’s suite of funded and unfunded programmes and the Bank’s broad portfolio of strategic programmes and initiatives designed to accelerate intra-African trade and industrial transformation within the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
With the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic fresh in the minds of most African governments, the Bank outlined its initiatives to improve the quality of healthcare infrastructure and medical services delivery across the continent. Chief among these was Afreximbank’s African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) initiative, which is being implemented in partnership with leading global healthcare institutions (Kings College Hospital, London, and Christie’s Oncology Centre, Manchester). It will promote intra-African medical tourism by transforming the state of Africa’s health and medical services infrastructure through investments in world-class medical facilities, stemming the outflow of foreign currency caused by the pursuit of medical treatment abroad. AMCE will be a leading centre for R&D in clinical services and offer residency, training and observership placement programmes to physicians and medical students continent-wide.
The centre will create the largest and most diverse biobank in West Africa, enabling it to attract global and pan-African partnerships – functioning as a continental reference facility.
Dr George Elombi, Executive Vice President, Governance, Corporate and Legal Services, addressed the assembled ambassadors, inviting them to take advantage of the Bank’s targeted offerings. He observed: “Your governments own this Bank, so you must task the institution to deliver on its founding objectives for your various countries and the wider continent. African Governments and the African private sector jointly account for over 90% of the shareholding of the Bank. So, you must, collectively, guide our direction and flag the priority development needs for the Bank to support. Even if we can only execute a few, it’s a significant first step that will begin to transform our economies. You must take full advantage of the institution you created.”
His Excellency, Ambassador Sherif Issa, Assistant Minister for African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Egypt, welcomed guests to the event, saying: “Our goal is to introduce the ten Egyptian Ambassadors poised for deployment in African countries to the Bank and their fellow African Ambassadors and to initiate discussions to explore opportunities to deepen cooperation between and among our countries. In just one example, Egypt can support the development of Afreximbank’s pioneering Africa Medical Centre of Excellence Project and its expansion or replication to other parts of the continent, improving our collective access to quality healthcare.”
