The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced a funding package of $1 billion dedicated towards supporting Africa’s creative industries under the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) programme.
According to a statement issued earlier in the week, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Benedict Oramah, announced the funding at the opening of the CANEX WKND which brought together the cultural and creative industries in Africa and the Diaspora in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
In 2020, Afreximbank introduced a dedicated $500 million facility to support Africa’s creative and cultural industry as part of its wider CANEX programme.
The bank has been able to support the industry significantly through this facility which is now nearly fully utilised.
Oramah indicated that the doubling of the size of the facility to $1 billion, for implementation over the next three years to 2025, would maintain and sustain the momentum and impact initiated by the original facility.
“We hope that the experience we gained implementing the original facility will enable us to provide the industry with a more efficient solution that can grow your business further. We expect to use this facility to support our talented youth,” the statement quoted him as saying.
According to the statement, so far, the bank’s culture and creative industry support facility has assisted film production, in some cases in partnership with Netflix. It has provided lines of credit to some African banks to support commercial creative activities.
Reeling out the bank’s ongoing work towards supporting the industry, Oramah stated that the “Afreximbank CANEX Presents Africa” initiative which enables African Designers to showcase their products at international fashion platforms, including the Portugal Fashion Week Runway show and in sales rooms at the Tranoï tradeshow at Paris Fashion Week, giving them access to global audiences, retail buyers, wholesalers, and global media.
