Afreximbank approves $3m COVID-19 response grant for African Countries

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on Monday announced a $3-million grant to complement continental efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah,who made the announcement in Cairo, said that the grant was in response to a request by African heads of state, through the auspices of the African Union Chair Person, Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, for the mobilisation of resources to address the pandemic.

He said that a significant proportion of the grant would go to the COVID-19 Special Fund set up by the African Union (AU) as well as to the African Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC).

“We hope that our modest contribution will help to address some of the immediate needs. We encourage other African banks, funds, corporations and charitable organisations to also contribute to the relief effort,” said Oramah, who noted that Afreximbank was working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the AU to help mobilise grant funding for the COVID-19 mitigation responses.

Highlighting the need for wide institutional support for the COVID-19 response effort, he said that “no one country or institution will be able to rise to the challenge of the pandemic on its own.”

Afreximbank’s grantsupport comesin addition to several initiativesthe Bank istaking to support the effort in fighting the pandemic, such as the $3-billion Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA), which it launched in March, to help African countries deal with the economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bank has also set aside an amount of $200million for use in financing the production of COVID-19 equipment and supplies within Africa. President Oramah said that the resource constraints and urgent nature of interventions on the ground required significant grant financing to ensure timely support for emergency interventions in combating the pandemic.

Afreximbank has a history of intervening in support of African countries in times of crisis. In November 2014, the Bank contributed $1 million to the effort to combat the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease which affected several countries in West Africa. In 2019, Afreximbank donated $1.5 million to countries in Southern Africa to support relief effortsfor victims of Tropical Cyclone Idai.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.