By Andrew I. Kazibwe
The African Creative industry is set for a projective boost following a recent
move by the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim bank), which has vowed
to finance it with $500million, “We have made available, an envelope of 500
million US Dollars, to support the production and trade of African culture
and creative industry for the next two years,” affirmed Prof. Benedict. O.
Oramah, the President of Afreximbank.
This was officiated at the 2020 Creative Africa Exchange(CAX) summit, an
event which was held at Kigali’s Intare Conference Arena in Rwanda on
January 17.
This move is motivated by the fact that the Bank has an intra-African trade
strategy which includes support to the creative industry, “That support is
based on the recognition that the creative economy is increasingly a
significant sector and a meaningful contributor to Africa’s Gross Domestic
Product (GDP); that, in line with global trends, Africa’s Cultural and
Creative Industries (CCIs) are evolving into platforms for promoting
innovation, enhancing services and reducing youth unemployment; that
cultural and creative industries catalyse economic growth by fostering more
inclusive, connected and collaborative societies; that they generate income
through trade and intellectual property rights, and create new opportunities,
particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs); and, therefore,
can be potent vehicles for more equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth
strategies for African economies,” he explains.
With the structure of this fund being developed, nothing should limit any
artist from applying for it, since applications are assessed based on merit
according to the bank management.
In accessing the funding, in countries where Afreximbank does not have
physical presence, it works through local banks known as trade finance
intermediaries, “The Bank’s Branch Offices also cover the countries in their
various regions,” Mr. Oramah explains, “For instance, the East Africa
Regional Office is located in Kampala, Uganda, where East African
countries can easily access the service,” he added.
In an environment where the Arts and creative sector is faced by lack of
enough funding to mostly facilitate production and branding of its products,yet most financial institutions haven’t to this day been accommodative
towards financing of the Creative sectors as regards provision of loans to
them, not much has been seen to give the sector a boost.
Rosemary Mbabazi, Rwanda’s Minister of Youth and Culture states how
taking advantage of the recently signed Continental Free Trade Area
(CFTA), the creative industry will enhance existing collaborations within
countries by unlocking not only unemployment challenges among youth,
but also the intellectual property rights challenges as well as the quality of
the produce.
Established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and
institutional investors, and non-African investors, Afreximbank is a Pan-
African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting
intra- and extra-African trade.
With its headquartered in Cairo holds two basic constitutive documents,
which are the Establishment Agreement; giving it the status of an
international organization, and the Charter, which governs its corporate
structure and operations.
Since 1994, Afreximbank has approved more than $67 billion in credit
facilities for African businesses, including $7.2 billion in 2018. Afreximbank
had total assets of $13.4 billion as at 31 December 2018. It is rated A-
(GCR), Baa1 (Moody’s), and BBB- (Fitch).
The issue of collateral as a Banking language, is one which has for long
hindered Artists into accessing loans from banks. This was again raised byseveral participants during CAX summit, but Afreximbank is well aware of
it, and rather isn’t to dwell on that, but states that all applications are
assessed based on their own individual merit. The Bank will normally work
with an applicant to find the best structure to support the request.
