By MUHAMMED S. BAH
The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, has signed three new Murabaha Financing Agreements with The Gambia amounting to US$ 55million.
According to a release from the ITFC, this is to support the strategic key sectors of Agriculture and Energy, in line with the three-year Framework agreement of $210 Million signed in January 2018 between the two parties.
“These new agreements will help the government secure the country’s imports of refined petroleum products and electricity generation under two operations with NAWEC and GNPC as executing agents of respectively $25M and $10M, the third agreement of $20M will support the upcoming Groundnut marketing season 2019-2020.”
It was said to be signed on 7th November by ITFC’s CEO Eng Hani Salem Sonbol and The Gambia, represented by Mr Mambury Njie, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, on the sidelines of the Arab Africa Trade Bridge (AATB) Governing Board Meeting held in Dakar Senegal from the 6th – 8th of November 2019.
It states that the agreement is reflective of ITFC’s strong relationship with The Gambia, and is in support of the country’s strategic objective to build on those key sectors under the new Gambia National Development Plan 2018-2020.
Through these new agreements, ITFC will support the financing of key economic sectors for The Gambia including energy through the importation of refined petroleum products, and agriculture, through the importation of fertilizers and the provision of pre-export financing for agricultural produce notably, groundnuts and cashew nuts.
Since its inception in 2008, ITFC approved a total of US$544 million for the Republic of The Gambia under 35 operations. Approximately 68% of the approved financing went to the Energy sector for the importation of petroleum products and 32% to the Agricultural sector as pre-export financing of the country’s primary export commodity – Groundnuts.
The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group. It was established with the purpose of advancing trade among OIC member countries, which would ultimately contribute to the overarching goal of improving socioeconomic conditions of the people across the world. It commenced operations in January 2008, ITFC has since consolidated all trade finance businesses that used to be handled by various windows within the IsDB Group.
Since 2008, ITFC has provided more than US$45 billion of trade financing to OIC Member Countries, making the Corporation the leading provider of trade solutions for OIC Member Countries’ needs.
