Nouvelles Infos
The loan facility will be utilised for the rehabilitation and maintenance of sports infrastructure required for the 2024 Cricket World Cup, which is going to be held in Barbados.
Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, and the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, signed the agreement on behalf of their two organisations on the sidelines of the Second AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF23).
Under the terms of the agreement, KOMI will use the proceeds of the loan, which carries a seven-year tenure, to rehabilitate the infrastructure, namely Kensington Oval, ahead of the Cricket World Cup scheduled to take place from June 4 to 30, 2024. The loan is being provided under Afreximbank’s Sports Financing Programme.
Speaking during the signing, Prof. Oramah said the rehabilitation and maintenance of the sports infrastructure will foster economic growth, cultural exchange, and community development by ensuring the effective hosting of the Cricket World Cup.
According to President Oramah, the World Cup will increase tourism income and stimulate growth among various service providers in the tourism industry, while the newly renovated and fully functional infrastructure at Kensington Oval will also continue to host a wide range of sporting events in the future, attracting athletes and enthusiasts from around the world.
Reflecting on the agreement, Prime Minister Mottley stated that the loan would contribute to the further development of cricket in the region. The Barbados Prime Minister said the funds will facilitate the establishment of indoor cricket facilities, which will enable Caribbean cricketers to closely analyse and improve their skills to compete on the field.
“This region must give our cricketers the best available coaching and technology if they are to be able to resume their global position in cricket”, she said, while expressing gratitude to Afreximbank for providing the funds, at concessionary interest rates, to make it possible.
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About the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum
The idea for ACTIF2022 resulted from an official Afreximbank visit to Barbados in September 2021, which followed that month’s inaugural Africa/CARICOM Summit. During the visit, the Government of Barbados and Afreximbank identified the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum as a key strategic activity towards institutionalising the engagement between both regions’ private sectors to advance trade and investment relations. The inaugural edition of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum was held in Bridgetown, Barbados from 1 to 3 September 2022, and the second edition is being held in Georgetown, Guyana, from 30 – 31 October 2023.
About Afreximbank
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. For 30 years, the Bank has been deploying innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa. A stalwart supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Afreximbank has launched a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement platform to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. Working with the AfCFTA Secretariat and the AU, the Bank is setting up a US$10 billion Adjustment Fund to support countries to effectively participate in the AfCFTA. At the end of 2022, Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees stood at over US$31 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to US$5.2 billion. The Bank disbursed more than US$86 billion between 2016 and 2022. Afreximbank has investment grade ratings assigned by GCR (international scale) (A), Moody’s (Baa1), Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) (A-) and Fitch (BBB). Afreximbank has evolved into a group entity comprising the Bank, its impact fund subsidiary called the Fund for Export Development Africa (FEDA), and its insurance management subsidiary, AfrexInsure, (together, “the Group”).
