Afreximbank Hopes to See $7Bln in Russia-Africa Pipeline Transactions Close by 2022 – Exec

08.06.2021

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 7 (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson - The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) hopes to see several of its pipeline transactions between Russian and African firms, worth in excess of $7 billion, close before the upcoming 2022 Russia-Africa summit, a senior executive told Sputnik.

Source: (c) Sputnk news service

"We at Afreximbank at the moment are sitting on more than $7 billion of pipeline transactions with Russian corporates and we hope to see a fair amount of these transactions close by the time we go to the next summit," Rene Awambeng said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Awambeng admitted that the pandemic put a damper on the execution of some of those deals last year but added that the bank was hoping to see the completion of several agreements by the time Russian and African leaders meet again.

"We want to see a number of deals that have come to fruition, we want to see success cases, where the transfer of capital, transfer of knowledge, not just trade, but the transfer of Russian technology to Africa, and I know a number of the big Russian institutions are actively working with us and other partners on the continent to see this realization," he added.

Awambeng said the implementation of those projects was hampered by lack of information, language barriers, and the difficulties Russian companies sometimes have in navigating local regulations and finding suitable business partners on the African continent.

The first Russia-Africa summit was held in Russia's resort city of Sochi in October 2019. Co-chaired by the presidents of Russia and Egypt, the event drew over 6,000 representatives of 104 countries, including the leaders of over 40 African nations.

This year's edition of SPIEF was held from June 2-5 in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Rossiya Segodnya was an official media partner of the event.

In total, more than 800 agreements, worth in excess of 3.8 trillion rubles ($52 billion), were signed at Russia's flagship economic forum, Anton Kobyakov, a Russian presidential adviser and SPIEF executive secretary, said Saturday.