Apex trade finance bank says it has always been profitable

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in its Return on Equity (RoE), has said that it has remained highly profitable since its establishment in 1993.

In the RoE, the bank says it has been above 10 percent in the last 10 years, while it has maintained a cost-income ratio below 30 percent over the period.

According to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the bank, which is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, said it had a strong tier one capital of about 20 percent and “callable capital” of 278.4 million dollars as at December 31, 2014.

The bank also said that its loan portfolio had an average of one year, adding that it maintained highly liquid balance sheet and good assets quality.

“Most of the loans are linked to actual export trades with about 60 per cent secured collateral outside of the obligor’s country, domiciled mainly in OECD countries,” the bank said.

READ: Nigerian to head top continental bank

The bank listed some of its special initiatives including “Africorrbanking’’, “Contour”, “Health and Medical Tourism’’, “Africoin”, “Non-Equity Mode” and “Intrafrap”.

The Afreximbank under its “Africoin” initiative aims to provide long term funding for the creation of local processing capacity and provision of working capital for local agriculture workers across the continent.