Afreximbank names Obasanjo head of council for inaugural Intra-African Trade Fair

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has named former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo as Chairman of the Advisory Council for the inaugural Intra-African Trade Fair scheduled for Cairo.

A statement issued on Monday in Lagos by Mr Obi Emekekwue, the bank’s Director and Global Head, Communications and Events Management Department, said the fair would hold from Dec. 11 to Dec. 17.

According to Emekekwue, Jean-Louis Ekra, a former President of Afreximbank, is the Deputy Chairman, while the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank are also on the council.

Emekekwue said other members of the council included the Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the World Trade Centre, Miami, the International Trade Centre, Egypt and the AfroChampions Initiative.

He said that PixyKorner had been named the trade fair organizer, adding that Afreximbank would serve as the Secretariat of the fair.

Emekekwue quoted Ekra as saying “the advisory council marked the culmination of a series of activities relating to the trade fair’’.

Ekra said that Afreximbank initiated the fair on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Summit of the African Union in Kigali recently.

According to him, the summit is being convened for the signing of the Agreement for the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Dr Benedict Oramah, the President of Afreximbank also said that the role of the bank was to achieve the objective of driving intra-African trade.

Oramah announced that Egypt was selected as the preferred host for the inaugural fair following a competitive bidding process, adding that the fair would take place every two years.

Afreximbank is the foremost pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade.

The bank was established in Oct. 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors.

The bank has its headquarters in Cairo.