{{The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved on Wednesday a financial package consisting of $20 million in additional equity and a $50 million line of credit to finance projects in the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) member states.}}
This financial package will allow PTA Bank to finance a mix of small- and medium-scale enterprises and regional infrastructure projects.
Moreover, this package will count in mobilizing financial resources for developing the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) region, which will ultimately contribute to economic development and generate employment opportunities.
PTA Bank was established in 1985 as a financing arm of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) and is headquartered in Bujumbura, Burundi.
The bank’s shareholders include Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as the AfDB and the People’s Republic of China.
PTA Bank’s mandate is to foster economic and social development in regional member states through regional integration, trade and project finance. Its financial performance in recent years has been robust, despite the global financial crisis, and has consistently posted healthy profits and achieved good asset quality over the last five years, and has also strengthened its corporate governance and risk-management structures and processes.
The provision of the financial package builds on the existing strong partnership between PTA Bank and AfDB based on synergies stemming from complementary sources of comparative advantage.
PTA Bank, with its field presence and market knowledge, provides a logical channel for AfDB to reach out to end-customers by efficiently leveraging its scale.
Moreover, AfDB’s subscription of new equity in PTA Bank is expected to play a catalytic role and by so-doing encourage more institutional shareholders to boost the bank’s capitalisation.
{Workers construct a road }
NMG
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