Within the context of the existing memorandum of understanding between the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD and the African Export-Import Bank, also known as Afreximbank, a technical meeting between the two institutions was held between 6 and 7 July 2022, at the AUDA-NEPAD offices in Midrand, South Africa.

The meeting culminated in the signing of an aide-memoire and several thematic presentations were made. In-depth discussions recommended the following areas to be explored for joint implementation:

Firstly, it was agreed that both institutions will harness synergies between AUDA-NEPAD’s Technical Advisory Scheme for Young Professionals and the Afreximbank Junior Professionals Programme to advance the rollout of the AUDA-NEPAD scheme, which will be officially launched on 19 September 2022.

The meeting also discussed the need for institutional strengthening of AUDA-NEPAD in the implementation of Agenda 2063 and the need to explore the technical expertise of both institutions to support joint programme development and implementation. Additionally, the meeting participants stressed the need to strengthen knowledge exchange between Afreximbank and AUDA-NEPAD.

The proposed areas of cooperation include the continued joint collaboration on trade facilitation, particularly the expansion of MoveAfrica and its Traffic Light System to other regions of Africa, as well as to harness the Afreximbank African Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme in support of MoveAfrica and intra-African trade.

Another proposed area of collaboration is to leverage on the Afreximbank Project Preparation Facility, to support the tools and instruments of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, including the advancement of the energy Continental Master Plan.

Agreement was also reached to capitalise on the successes of the Home-Grown Solution project and use the AUDA-NEPAD Development Fund once established as a mechanism to facilitate the disbursement of grants to beneficiary companies.

The parties also agreed to explore collaboration on project preparation and implementation for industrialisation and export development (including through the African Continental Free Trade Area and Blue Economy), manufacturing, productivity and quality assurance, including potential collaboration on Quality Assurance Centres and the Africa Medical Centres of Excellence being championed by Afreximbank.

The technical meeting on strengthening the cooperation between AUDA-NEPAD and Afreximbank was held against the backdrop of operationalising recommendations of the high-level meeting held by the President of Afreximbank and the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD on the margins of the Extraordinary Summit held in Malabo, Equatoria Guinea, in May this year.