Export-Import Bank of India (India Exim Bank) has concluded a Master Risk Participation Agreement for supporting trade transactions with FirstRand Bank (FRB) Limited. The agreement was signed in Johannesburg on Monday on the sidelines of the India – Southern Africa Regional Conclave, in the presence of. Silvino Augusto Jose Moreno, Minister for Industry and Commerce, Mozambique, Jaideep Sarkar, High Commissioner of India to South Africa and Busi Mabuza, Board Chairperson, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited, and Chair, BRICS Business Council.
FRB has a presence in Botswana, Eswatini, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, besides a representative office in Mumbai. The agreement opens financing avenues to support trade between India and Africa, aiming to strengthen the growing economic engagement between India and African nations.
The agreement has been signed under India Exim Bank’s latest trade facilitation initiative, the Trade Assistance Programme. Under this programme, India Exim Bank provides credit enhancement to trade instruments, thereby augmenting the capacity of commercial banks / financial institutions to undertake cross-border trade transactions involving markets where trade lines are constrained, or where the potential has not been harnessed.
Speaking on the occasion, India Exim Bank’s Chief General Manager, Vikramaditya Ugra, highlighted, “Over the last few months, India Exim Bank has supported multiple trade transactions under the programme, covering a wide range of sectors including agriculture, automotive parts, capital and engineering goods, food, iron & steel and textiles.”
India Exim Bank’s publication ‘Reinvigorating India’s Economic Engagements with Southern Africa’ was also released at the Conclave. With the increasing diversification of India’s global trade towards developing countries, Southern African countries have emerged as significant trade partners for India. India Exim Bank finds substantial complementarity in India’s exports and the Southern African Custom Union (SACU)’s imports over the last decade. The study identifies products with strong export potential from India to SACU. A Preferential Trade Agreement is expected to ease the trade hurdles between India and SACU, leading to overall increase in India’s trade and investment with SACU and with the broader region of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). As new trade and investment partnerships are forming across the world, the study highlights the necessity of India and Southern African countries to forge mutually beneficial collaborations in several areas of interest.