By Thompson ABISOLA
The President, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Prof Benedict Oramah, have urged economies of the South to work together to deal with the uncertainties resulting from the current global trade environment.
Oramah gave the advice during a discussion on “The Growing Importance of South-South Cooperation Amid Trade Tensions and Global Financial Market Volatility” on the sidelines of the 2018 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia.
According to him, the rising sentiment of anti-globalism and the push back on multilateralism by some global powers has put Africa at the periphery with only three per cent global trade.
He said many South economies were in the same situation, buth the economies of the South had all the ingredients to drive economic growth.
He therefore, urged the developing economies to work together so as to negotiate in concert at the global level.
Oramah announced that Afreximbank was building partnerships and developing frameworks to attract South-South investment and trade into Africa as trade with the South had become dominant in Africa.
According to him, Africa-South trade has reached 56 per cent of the continent’s total trade as against the former figure of about 16 per cent in the early 1990s.
