Pan-African lender Afreximbank is ramping up its support for the Caribbean, boosting its financing limit from US$3 billion to US$5 billion over the next four years to back both governments and private-sector projects across the region.
This increase builds on more than US$750 million already disbursed and a pipeline exceeding US$2 billion, signalling a major scale-up of Afreximbank’s regional engagement.
The bank aims to drive economic transformation by promoting value addition, local processing of resources, and strategic investments that generate jobs, boost government revenues, and strengthen regional integration.
Addressing the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, last week, Afreximbank president George Elombi said the bank aims to transform Caribbean economies over the coming decade.
“We will increase the global limit to this region from the current US$3 billion to US$5 billion, with the hope of achieving full utilisation over the next three to four years,” he said.
Elombi outlined a strategy focused on value addition and local processing of agricultural outputs and natural resources, to retain significant value locally, generate wealth, create jobs, and boost government revenues.
Planned interventions include developing healthcare facilities in Barbados, Guyana, and Grenada; supporting tourism projects in Barbados, Grenada, the Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda; financing agro-processing and logistics facilities in Barbados, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis; and investing in infrastructure such as power generation, roads, conferencing facilities, and trade centres across Grenada, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Suriname.
Afreximbank is also supporting the implementation of a regional development strategy with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank aimed at doubling the size of the Caribbean economy within a decade. African partners such as Access Bank, Oando, and Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP) are exploring regional entry, including special economic zones.
- Old habits die hard
- The fog has cleared in Zim
- Record bacterium as long as human eyelash discovered
- Record bacterium as long as human eyelash discovered
Keep Reading
The bank reaffirmed its commitment to the Afreximbank African Trade Centre in Bridgetown, Barbados, and the eventual creation of a Caribbean Eximbank to facilitate transformative investments.
Elombi welcomed the launch of the CARICOM Payment and Settlement System, modelled on Afreximbank’s Pan African Payment and Settlement System, as a low-cost, real-time cross-border payments system in local currencies that could deepen regional trade and integration.
The CARICOM Heads of Government meeting ran from February 24–27 under the theme Beyond Words: Action Today for a Thriving, Sustainable CARICOM. St. Kitts and Nevis will host the fifth Afri-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF2026) in July, featuring panel discussions, business matchmaking, cultural showcases, and deal signings.
