$60 Billion: Been ratified by United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to give Financing for the following three Years to Qualified SMEs across Africa

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone – The consensus with AfCFTA is on the sidelines of the 30th Afreximbank Annual Meeting (AAM) held in Accra, Ghana.

According to this pact, the two institutions are to stimulate the growth of SMEs operating in four sectors under the 1st phase of the partnership which is primarily import dependent on giving technical and financing solutions for intra-African/domestic alternatives. These economic sectors are Agroprocessing, Automotive, pharmaceuticals, Transport, and Logistics.

One of the key endeavors of the AfCFTA is to enhance access to finance and markets for SMEs in a bid to enable their development and assistance to the socio-economic development of Africa.

Muyiwa Akinyemi – Deputy Managing Director of UBA, who approved the pact on behalf of the bank, remarked that being Africa’s global bank, UBA devoted to aiding the growth of SMEs across Africa. This is in line with our strategic focus on processing being an impetus to the financial growth of Africa.

Akinyemi further said, “Under this partnership, UBA will go beyond just financing to provide non-financial services to these SMEs to develop the capacity for growth across the 20 African countries that we are present and build sustainable business practices. We shall also be leveraging technology to deliver our financing activities to the beneficiaries and this platform provides us with a unique opportunity to stimulate the development of this e continent as Africa’s Global”.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent