Afreximbank commits $8bn country package to SA, with additional $3bn for inclusive growth

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has committed an initial $8 billion country package to South Africa, aimed at supporting industrialisation, infrastructure development and deeper integration into regional and continental markets, Afreximbank President Dr George Elombi said.

Speaking at an event alongside South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic), Elombi said the package marked South Africa’s full membership of the multilateral trade finance institution and reflected a strategic alignment with the country’s national development priorities.

“This country package is aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities and will target key areas,” Elombi said. “We intend to invest heavily in the local processing of natural resources, thereby helping retain value within our economies, create jobs and generate wealth for our people.”

A major focus of the funding will be value-added industrial activity, particularly in mineral beneficiation and the expansion of automotive manufacturing, as well as investments aimed at broadening South Africa’s fiscal revenue base.

Elombi said Afreximbank would also prioritise critical infrastructure development, with a strong emphasis on energy generation and transmission, which he described as central to South Africa’s industrial future.

“We are fighting for the industrial revolution so that our minerals can no longer leave our shores without value being added,” he said, noting that reliable power supply remained a prerequisite for industrialisation across the continent.

Beyond domestic investment, the bank plans to facilitate South Africa’s access to regional and continental markets, supporting the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and unlocking value from Africa’s emerging single market.

To deliver the programme, Afreximbank will work in partnership with key South African institutions, including the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and commercial banks.

In addition to the $8bn package, Elombi announced plans for an additional $3bn inclusive financing programme, developed in collaboration with the dtic and the National Transformation Fund. The programme is intended to support small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as marginalised and vulnerable participants in the South African economy.

“This $3bn inclusive package is to support the resourceful, but marginalised and vulnerable servants of the South African economy,” he said, adding that small firms’ survival often depended on access to appropriate financing.

Elombi stressed that Afreximbank’s support for South Africa predated the country’s full membership of the bank. Over recent years, Afreximbank has invested significantly across several critical sectors of the South African economy.

In 2018, Afreximbank and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC) launched a $1bn South Africa–Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme, aimed at expanding trade and investment between South Africa and the rest of the continent. Elombi said the bank intended to renew the programme at a higher level.

Among other projects, Afreximbank contributed to the completion of the $300 million Zimbabwe–South Africa water infrastructure project, supported South African banks’ participation in the BDP5 natural gas project through a risk-sharing scheme, and provided base financing for the preparation of a $500m titanium dioxide manufacturing plant in the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone.

The bank has approved $175m for the development phase of that project.

Elombi said Afreximbank currently has a strong pipeline of bankable projects in South Africa across sectors including energy, transport, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and mining, with projects at various stages exceeding $6bn in value.

Concluding his remarks, Elombi emphasised Afreximbank’s broader continental mission.

“We are here first and foremost as Africans,” he said. “We will be partners in South Africa’s interests and in the interests of the wider African continent.”

He also thanked South African government counterparts, including officials from the dtic, National Treasury and the department responsible for international cooperation, for their role in strengthening the partnership between South Africa and Afreximbank.

“This renewed connection between South Africa and the Bank,” Elombi said, “has the potential to transform not only South Africa, but Africa as a whole.”

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