Afreximbank Launches $3m Grant to Tackle COVID-19

By Adedapo Adesanya

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced a $3 million grant to provide a continental boost towards ensuring the sound health of Africans during the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Making the announcement in a statement, President of the Cairo-based agency, Mr Benedict Oramah, said that the grant was in response to a request by African Heads of State, through the African Union Chairperson, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, for the mobilisation of resources to address the rampaging pandemic.

According to him, a significant proportion of the grant would go to the COVID-19 Special Fund set up by the African Union (AU) as well as to the African Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC).

He said, “We hope that our modest contribution will help to address some of the immediate needs. We encourage other African banks, funds, corporations and charitable organisations to also contribute to the relief effort.”

Mr Oramah also noted that Afreximbank was working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the AU to help mobilise grant funding for the COVID-19 mitigation responses.

Iterating the need for wide institutional support for the COVID-19 response effort across the continent, the Afreximbank noted that no one country or institution will be able to rise to the challenge of the pandemic on its own.

Afreximbank’s grant support comes in addition to several initiatives the Bank is taking to support the effort in fighting the pandemic, such as the $3 billion Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA), which it launched in March, to help African countries deal with the economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bank has also set aside an amount of $200 million for use in financing the production of COVID-19 equipment and supplies within Africa.

Mr Oramah said that the resource constraints and urgent nature of interventions on the ground required significant grant financing to ensure timely support for emergency interventions in combating the pandemic.

Afreximbank has a always intervened and announced support of African countries in times of crisis: In 2019, Afreximbank donated $1.5 million to countries in Southern Africa to support relief efforts for victims of Tropical Cyclone Idai.

Also in November 2014, the bank contributed $1 million to the effort to combat the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease which affected several countries in West Africa.