The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced a partnership with the Ogun State Government to promote fabric processing and support value addition, in line with its broader vision to end Africa’s raw commodity exports.
The Afreximbank president, George Elombi, made this known on Sunday, November 2, during his swearing in ceremony, where he pledged to end the export of unprocessed commodities and minerals from the continent.
He emphasized that the bank’s new direction would prioritize domestic processing and reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Ogun State’s fabric processing zone, noting that partnership frameworks are already in motion.
“No more Nigerian bauxite, or Gabonese manganese, or Cameroonian bauxite, or South African bauxite, raw. We are not interested. We will focus on domestic processing. This has numerous benefits,” Elombi said.
He reiterated that his administration will focus on developing strategic industries that can drive industrialisation and job creation.
“Afreximbank will therefore create a new high impact financing window, specifically for projects that process raw minerals into semi finished goods or finished goods,” he added.
According to him, the bank intends to establish a strategic minerals development programme that will process and finance entire value chains, from extraction and refining to manufacturing finished components.
Elombi explained that less than 20 percent of investment typically goes to mineral extraction, while over 80 percent goes to supporting infrastructure such as roads, railways, ports, and power stations.
He also cited poor infrastructure as a major bottleneck to intra-African trade, highlighting the need for improvement, adding that the bank already has an agenda with countries that already produce excess power to construct transmission lines and take it to those with less.
“We will accelerate investments in critical trade enabling infrastructure projects that directly connect African markets to one another,” he said.
Elombi said Afreximbank will invest in modernising seaports, constructing highways and rail lines, and building specialised logistics hubs, warehousing facilities, and pipelines.
Comments