Business
US Ex-im Bank authorizes $1 billion for U.S. Exports to Sub-Saharan Africa
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) on Tuesday announced it had authorized $1.1 billion to finance American exports to sub-Saharan Africa in the first seven months of 2014. The announcement was made during a U.S. Africa-Energy ministerial meeting between Monday and Tuesday attended by Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Ex-Im Bank chairman Fred Hochberg.
Hochberg said, “Ex-Im Bank is committed to expanding U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to seven out of 10 of the world’s fastest-growing markets.” He also said, “U.S. exporters are eager to realize the tremendous opportunities in this region, and the bank is helping them to create and sustain American jobs by increasing their exports to Africa.
“We look forward to increasing financing for American-produced exports to Africa’s energy sector,” Hochberg told 350 business leaders and government officials, including more than 30 African energy ministers, in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. In the past five years, Ex-Im Bank has authorized more than $5 billion for U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa, exceeding the bank’s authorizations of $4 billion for the region approved over the previous decade.
The bank is also increasing the number of its sub-Saharan authorizations, the majority of which benefit small-business exporters of spare parts, consumer goods and other products supported through the institution’s short-term export-credit insurance. Ex-Im Bank has approved over 100 authorizations for U.S. exports to the region, since the beginning of 2014 fiscal year, and is on track to exceed the record-high level of 188 sub-Saharan Africa authorizations made last year.
