ITFC role in African trade finance highlighted at ‘Africa 2017’ conference

Newspaper Title: http://www.arabnews.com

Newspaper Number:

Thursday - 14 December 2017

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, recently participated in the “Africa 2017” conference, held in Sharm El-Shiekh. The event was inaugurated by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and witnessed a high level presence of officials from African countries.
The ITFC, and other international organizations and banks, sponsored this conference because they believe in its mission of supporting business, and development opportunities in the continent to engage with some of Africa’s most important economic partners and stakeholders, and empowering the strategic partnership between the ITFC, IDB Group and Egypt.
ITFC Chief Operating Officer, Nazeem Noordali, spoke about the ITFC’s role in African trade finance during a panel on “Financing Cross-Border Infrastructure and Trade” held on the third day of the conference.
“Africa’s Agenda 2063 aspires for an African world-class infrastructure which, by 2045, should enable intra-continental trade to grow to up to 50 percent from less than 14 percent today, and Africa’s total contribution to global trade to rise from 2.5 percent to 12 percent. All the evidence suggests that, to close the large financing gap and realize this ambition, the existence of capital is not necessary, but rather, the lack of mechanisms needed to make it available.”
He added: “International trade has been for centuries a key driver of global economic growth. The past decades have been particularly marked by an unprecedented and substantial expansion of international trade, rising from $5 trillion in 1994 to about $24 trillion today.
“The ITFC always gives special emphasis to regional projects and for the promotion of intra-trade and intra-investment. For this purpose, ITFC has established among various international activities, the Arab Africa Trade Bridge (AATB) Program that seeks to enhance and increase trade between the two regions. This program has now evolved into a mainstream activity.”
Noordali reiterated the commitment of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, and the IDB Group, to support the Sustainable Development Goals.