Afreximbank called Jeddah Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to shift more investment focus to Africa’s mining sector as part of efforts to create value.
The IsDB has a long, strong relationship with Africa, with Libya and Egypt among the countries that agreed in 1974 to establish the organization.
Today, Libya and Nigeria rank among its top five member countries in terms of share size.
The scale of IsDB’s transactions with Africa through International Islamic Trade Finance, which provides trade support to participating countries on behalf of the bank, has exceeded one billion dollars, Benedict Oramah said on Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. , president of Afreximbank. at a conference for the bank’s half century of operation.
Afreximbank itself supports Africa-focused development initiatives and projects.
βToday there is no better place to invest than Africa. This is the continent of the future. This is the younger population. This is a continent that in a very short period of time will actually represent almost 40 percent of the world’s population,β said the head of Afreximbank.
βIt’s a continent that has every mineral you can think of that has yet to be tapped, not to mention water, agricultural land, all the things the world lacks today. So this is a place that can become a good partner for Saudi Arabia as it implements Vision 2030.”
Saudi Arabia, one of the latest economies to join the race for Africa’s mineral wealth, dominated by China and the US, in the world’s bid to tap critical metals needed for a green energy transition, this year was announced a $15 billion plan to scale up supply.
A huge chunk of this is expected to be allocated to cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel and manganese in East Africa.
Fight for Africa
Africa has vast amounts of minerals that the world seeks to mass-produce batteries and car components that are central to the shift to renewable energy for cars from fossil fuel dependence.
This has returned little socio-economic value after years of under-investment, which have led foreign mining companies to ship the continent’s largely unprocessed minerals overseas without processing or adding much value.
The resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, a notable example, has mineral reserves worth $24 trillion, according to the United States Agency for International Development, but ranks among the world’s poorest nations.
Countries such as Zambia and Nigeria, Africa’s economic powerhouse and most populous country, insist that investors add layers of value to the minerals before they can be exported.
Mr Oramah told panels and participants at the private sector forum of the IsDB annual meetings that Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, based on socio-economic and cultural diversification, has become a connecting hub for Asia, Europe and Africa.
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“If Saudi Arabia achieves this vision so that the world market is closer, African ports will be integrated into Saudi ports, we are able to diversify more effectively from mineral resources as well as Saudi Arabia from oil” , he said.
In February, the United States said it would support the project linking the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia by rail to the port of Lobito in Angola with more funding as it creates a corridor for itself to facilitate the import of minerals.
China is funding the construction of a 1,860km parallel railway line between Zambia and Tanzania, positioning the port of Dar es Salaam as a key hub for importing minerals from the continent.
On Saturday, the first day of the golden jubilee event, Ivory Coast closed a β¬70.5 million deal to finance a project aimed at developing root and tuber value chains and regional cassava value chains. Another project of the same nature, but worth β¬60.6 million, was approved in favor of the Republic of Benin.
Of the IsDB members, Africa represents 25 of the 57 countries spread over four continents that also include Asia, Europe and South America. Saudi Arabia is the largest member of the IsDB, holding almost a quarter of the paid-up capital.
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