
By Moses Patience Chat
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximb) has introduced a five-year strategic plan, spanning through 2022 to 2026 in order to enhance energy transition in Africa by catalyzing investments into infrastructure
projects.
This was revealed on Tuesday by the Bank’s Global Head and Director, Clients Relations, Rene Awambeng, during his presentation at the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, under the theme: “Financing Infrastructure Projects to Accelerate Africa’s Energy Transition.”
Awambeng said, “as a leading pan-African financial institution committed to financing the next wave of project developments in Africa’s energy sector, Afreximb has put in place a five-year strategic plan running from 2022 to 2026 called Extending the Frontiers, and which seeks to develop continental needs along four critical pillars.
“These pillars are, intra-African trade & African Continental Free Trade Agreement implementation; industrialization and export development; leadership in global trade banking in Africa; and financial stability.”
The five-year strategic plan, Awambeng said was focused on enhancing the provision of capital to drive Africa’s transformation with an array of programs, instruments and services to stimulate the expansion and development of African trade.
According to him, these programs include, “the creation of the Africa Energy Bank for sovereigns’ project preparation facility; the establishment of funds for export development; project and asset-based finance program; and structure trade financing.
“With these mechanisms, the bank strongly advocates for the need of energy transition solutions, adaptation and mitigation strategies and overall international support of these critical items, while allowing Africa its unique growth path to develop and industrialize using available resources.
“This means that we will pave the way for a synergetic ecosystem on the continent to deliver the necessary solutions by creating tailor products that can help the sector.
“To do this, Afreximb aims to enhance African refinery capacity to produce what we consume; refine crude domestically and sell locally and regionally; develop new sources of energy depending on gas and other forms of domestically sourced energy; build capacity and enhance the strength financial institutions to support trade and investment needs; support the African Energy Bank; and work with willing strategic partners to change the narrative.”
Awambeng emphasized that consideration needs to be given to the wealth of natural resources, including the oil and gas that Africa possesses and how these can be used to drive economic development, just as it was done in the developed world.
He maintained that “Africa currently sits on a wealth of natural resources totaling more than 130 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, representing 7% of the world’s oil; and more than 15 trillion standard cubic meters of natural gas, representing 13% of the world’s natural gas discovered to date,”
The Afreximb official further noted that monetizing the continent’s resources represents a critical step towards economic prosperity, the alleviation of energy poverty and the acceleration of an energy transition in Africa.