Afreximbank Plans to Sell Shares in Nigeria

• Afreximbank Plans to Sell Shares in Nigeria

African Export-Import Bank is in the process of selling shares in Nigeria and other two African nations to broaden its ownership and support lending.

According to an email from the bank, the lender is in talks with Nigerian regulators to raise equity worth of $200 million by the third quarter of 2018. However, the bank is still considering two other African markets and promise to release the details once discussions have been finalized.

Afreximbank, which was founded in 1993 to support and promote trade across the African continent, will list about 67 million of existing depository notes on Nigerian Stock Exchange to further boost liquidity.

In 2017, the lender approved a total of $3.2 billion worth of credit for Nigerian companies and has received more than 30 applications from different companies in the West African nation seeking ‘specialized credit’ or loans for infrastructure finance.

The bank is focusing on financial services, tourism, manufacturing, export infrastructure and agro-processing for loans, it said.

As the largest economy in Africa recovers, “funding is required to harness the opportunities,” Afreximbank said. The bank is in talks with another bank, Nigerian Export-Import bank, about a possible joint program that will complement the ongoing progress and boost the country’s non-oil exports.

The non-oil sector contributed more than 93.25 percent of the total 2017 economic growth, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.