African Export-Import Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Trade Organisation to am­plify the impact of their strategically aligned joint efforts of promoting glob­al trade, leveraging Africa’s unique re­source endowment.

The MoU will allow the two organi­sations to pursue a collaborative frame­work for harmonising and coordinating their efforts towards deepening key trade development activities on the continent.

Afreximbank and the WTO are part of an inter-agency partnership that is championing transformative change in the cotton industry in Africa’s Cotton-4 plus (C4+) countries, which include Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali as well as Côte D’Ivoire as an observer.

The MOU will afford the Bank and the WTO Secretariat the opportunity to expand and deepen their collaboration to support the cotton sector beyond the C4+ countries.

Their support will entail develop­ment of local and regional value chains of cotton in Africa as well as their inte­gration into the global value chain.

Another area of collaboration under the understanding will be on Trade Fi­nance matters, addressing non-tariff barriers to trade, the digital economy, capacity building, the oceans’ economic and fisheries subsidies, the sports and creative economies and trading in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

While speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank said: “The WTO Secretariat is a natural partner to Afreximbank given our shared mandate of promoting trade and trade-related activities. We are al­ready working with the Secretariat on FIFA’s C4+ Cotton Initiative, for which we have committed financing for proj­ect preparation for cotton transforma­tion projects in Africa.”

Formalising our relationship today signifies that we can go beyond our present collaboration to include other equally impactful interventions across key economic sectors in Africa.

The Bank recently signed a Charter with Confédération Africaine de Foot­ball (CAF) and the Rebranding Africa Forum (RAF) to build a robust sports’ economy, which will include commer­cialising and monetising African made sports apparel and athleisure wear. This is yet another undertaking that will benefit from this MOU with the WTO Secretariat,” he added.

H.E. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Di­rector General of the WTO Secretariat said: “The signing of this MOU is timely as it reflects some of the key priorities of many of our Members. I am partic­ularly pleased to see that it will support Members’ efforts in Agriculture and Food Security, advance efforts to ad­dress harmful fisheries subsidies, and promote cooperation on Trade Finance.

“I am especially pleased that Afrex­imbank has committed to explore the opening of a finance window that would assist the C-4 plus countries on their journey to scale value addition on the continent. I look forward to seeing real, on-the-ground results from this partnership.”