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As African economies scramble to find innovative ways and means to ensure recovery from the pandemic lockdowns and find sustainable growth going forward, the budding cooperation with Arab countries is a very welcome development. Mushtak Parker has the details.
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only been an exercise in containment and mitigation of a wily mutant pathogen, but more recently also, about resilience as countries scramble towards a post-pandemic economic recovery.
Efforts towards recovery are taking various forms and shapes but one of the most promising is the growing Afro-Arab cooperation. It is taking the form of innovative trade finance solutions, credit and investment insurance and even a specialised credit bureau for due diligence on SMEs trying to access funding.
Trade finance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SS Africa), despite a 10% decline in FH20 due to the pandemic, has held its own. A recent survey by a group of multilaterals led by the AfDB reported a "loss of expected growth" of 5-10% in FH20 in African trade finance but not an "absolute" drop in volume compared with FH19. PreCovid-19, the trade finance gap in Africa was already estimated at $100bn.
Unfair international trading terms heavily skewed in favour of major economies have been the bane of African and other emerging countries. As such, the elevation in January of Nigeria's Harvard-educated exMinister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the new head of the World Trade Organisation augurs well for a more Afro-centric approach to world trade (see page 62).
The UAE and Kenya are leading from the front in boosting Afro-Arab trade and investment. Judging by the high-level turn-out at the four-day 'Dubai Week in Africa' virtual trade summit held in mid-February - an online convention with a focus on strengthening trade relations between the UAE and Kenya, as well as with East Africa more widely - the bilateral trajectory...