.Country’s total exposure hits $5.5bn
BY KENNETH EZE
With total approvals in excess of $1.89 billion loans to Nigeria in the first eight months of 2021, the country’s indebtedness to the bank now stands at about $5.5 billion.
The Executive Vice President, Corporate Governance and Legal Services of the bank, Dr George Elombi, disclosed this during the intra-African Trade Fair 2021 official Nigeria high level roadshow, in Lagos.
He said, “From January to August 2021, total loan approvals for Nigeria were in excess of $1.89 billion and at the end of August 2021, the bank’s total loans exposure to Nigeria was $5.5 billion, representing 26.8 per cent share of the bank’s total loans and advances.”
Dwelling on ‘Promoting Nigeria-Africa Trade and Investment under the African Continental Free Trade Area,’ Elombi stated that in the context of COVID-19, the AfCFTA had taken on an even more important role as the framework for African economic recovery.
He identified market fragmentation, reliance on the export of primary commodities, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and others, as factors which gave rise to a low percentage of intra-African trade, “averaging around 15 per cent and continuously subjecting Africa’s growth and development to external forces.”
He maintained that as at 2020, Nigeria’s imports from the African region relative to total imports was at 7 per cent while the share of its exports to the African region relative to total exports was at 20 per cent.
“Accounting for about 52 per cent of the total population of West Africa, Nigeria stands to benefit the most from an intra African trade fair, an event intended to enhance the trade of African states among themselves, and to meet the objectives of Agenda 2063 as declared by African Heads of State,” he added.
He pointed out that Afreximbank, being the organiser of the Intra-African Trade Fair in Durban, had supported and facilitated trade and investments in Nigeria through its array of financial and non-financial instruments.
