To address overreliance on imported packaging, Senegal’s GFM gets €18.2 million from Afreximbank
Afreximbank President Jean-Louis Ekra (right) exchanges documents with GFM Managing Director Mamadou Ibra Kane, following the signing of the credit facility.
Cairo, 03 Oct. 2013 – In a bid to address the growing reliance by Senegalese companies on imported packaging materials for their businesses, the African Export-Import Bank today extended a credit facility of 18.2 million Euros to Senegal-based Groupe Futurs Media (GFM) for the import and installation of equipment.
The facility being granted to GFM represented the first time Afreximbank was providing a facility in a non-traditional sector that did not involve tangible products which could be put in a warehouse and moved by known businesses, said Afreximbank President Jean-Louis Ekra.
According to Mr. Ekra, the Bank decided to grant the facility because it responds to an important need for packaging within the African export sector where most products are currently shipped in bulk without packaging. With proper packaging, value would be added such products and jobs would be created.
The facility would enable GFM to become the largest packaging company in the West Africa region, said Mamadou Ibra Kane, Managing Director of GFM. The company’s goal was to target the 40 per cent of Senegal’s annual 140 million-Euro packaging turnover which was currently being accounted for by imports.
That the five-year credit facility to GFM is to enable it import and install printing equipment for an automated plant to support the expansion of its printing and packaging division in order to meet growing demand from local companies in Senegal. With implementation of the fully automated printing plant, GFM expects to meet growing industry needs and contribute to import substitution in Senegal, with attendant savings in foreign exchange. The facility will also promote export of packaging materials within West Africa and enable the growth of the real sector where the products can be inputs.
The facility, which carries a 12-month grace period, will be made available either by way of letters of credit issued by Banque Atlantique of Senegal and confirmed by Afreximbank or by direct payment to the equipment supplier.
GFM is a printing, media and communication group with headquarters in Dakar.
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About Afreximbank:
The African Export Import Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors to finance and promote intra- and extra-African trade. Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organization, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations. Since 1994, the Bank has approved more than $25 billion in credit facilities in support of African trade, including $3.71 billion in 2012. Afreximbank is headquartered in Cairo. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com
