The President and Chairman of Board of the African Export –Import Bank, (AFREXIM-Bank), His Excellency, Prof Benedict Oramah, has commended SIGNIS-Africa for organizing a successful Congress in Addis Ababa last year. He made the commendation when he received in audience the President of SIGNIS-Africa, Rev. Fr. Prof Walter C. Ihejirika who led a delegation to the Corporate Headquarters of the Bank in Cairo, Egypt.

Presenting an address, Fr. Ihejirika informed Prof Oramah that their visit is to express gratitude to him for participating in the SIGNIS-Africa Congress, noting that his presence and paper presentation added great value to the gathering.

  Going further, the SIGNIS-Africa President said: “We invited you to our Congress last year because we noticed that we share with your bank the common zeal of transforming the social life of Africa. We noticed the impact which AFREXIM Bank has made in unlocking the tremendous human and natural capitals which God has endowed Africa. So, our intention was to let you have a first-hand knowledge of our Association and see her as a possible associate in your transformative work in Africa.”

He expressed the delight of his Association at the recent announcement made by President Oramah in Kigali that AFREXIM Bank is setting aside a $500-million envelope to support the production and trade of African cultural and creative products over the next two years. Fr. Prof Ihejirika expressed the desire of SIGNIS-Africa to partner with the bank to enable young people benefit from this initiative. “We wish to let you know that SIGNIS-Africa is a strong player in the creative industry”, he said. “Our members are actively engaged in the production and circulation of communication-based cultural products, including films, music, digital software and hardware. We also promote cultural creativity through training workshops, especially for young people; presentation of awards of excellence in cultural and media festivals…. We are requesting, Sir, if it is possible, that you endow a small fraction of the fund to help nurture and promote cultural creativity among young people and those living in rural areas. If you entrust SIGNIS-Africa with the responsibility of overseeing this fund, we assure you that you will be amazed at the result you will get.”

Responding, President Oramah thanked Fr. Professor Ihejirika for his visit. He explained that AFEXIM-Bank functions as an international public-private partnership whose purpose is to accelerate the growth of trade in Africa. He expressed happiness that the new cultural creativity portfolio has generated high interest from many quarters including Africans in the diaspora. He outlined the modalities being worked out towards implementing the project, among which is the establishment of small cooperatives through which marginal people can have access to funding. He expressed the hope that the aspect of the cooperative could be an area where SIGNIS, as a faith-based organization with strong base at the grass root can play a role. He promised that SIGNIS-Africa’s request will be taken into consideration as the details of implementing the portfolio are worked out.

President Oramah also extended an invitation to SIGNIS to the forthcoming Inter-Africa Trade Fair (IATF 2020). The Fair is scheduled to hold from the 1^st to the 7^th of September 2020 in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. IATF is described as the biggest platform to connect African buyers, sellers and investors. It is organized biennially by AFREXIM Bank in collaboration with the African Union. More than 5,000 conference participants and over 1,000 exhibitors are expected at the Fair.