THE African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the African Export and Import Bank (AfrExim Bank) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at strengthening their collaboration on various capacity building initiatives in Africa. The Agreement recognises the common areas interest in fostering sustainable capacity for African countries.

In signing the MoU, the two institutions agreed to join efforts in supporting inter-African trade, by strengthening institutional capacity for export development, building capacity for research, policy formulation and implementation of think tanks. Private sector organisations in the targeted countries would also be included in the focus areas, in order to uncover innovation in effective economic integration, inter-African trade and export development.

ACBF has extensive experience working on Africa’s developmental challenges and has an established regional network of partners that are able to carry out capacity development programmes in a sustainable manner. On its part, AfrExim Bank is an African regional institution that provides trade finance facilities to promote intra-African trade and to encourage African countries to trade internationally. By partnering to mitigate country risks in Africa, the two institutions will create synergies, through joint support for economic policy analysis and management and other capacity development initiatives.

ACBF and AfrExim Bank are complementary in contributing to the mitigation of country risks, as the bank provides country risk guarantees to enhance the credit of African borrowers, whereas ACBF contributes to better economic policy formulation and management on the continent.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr Jean-Louis Ekra, President and Chairman of the Board of AfrExim Bank said that the agreement underpined the bank’s strategic focus on leveraging partnerships, in order to complement and supplement ongoing efforts at addressing human resource capacity gaps on the continent. He highlighted that “through strategic partnerships and collaboration, our two institutions will be able to create the necessary synergies for the creation of the requisite human and institutional capabilities to support economic growth and development in Africa, by leveraging and pooling our individual technical expertise.”

ACBF was established in February 1991. It is the outcome of collaboration between African governments and the international donor community. Its mission is to build sustainable human and institutional capacity for sustainable growth and poverty reduction in Africa.