Afreximbank Strengthens Support To CoDA On Vaccine Manufacturing, AfCFTA

After two years of successful collaboration, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has renewed its technical and financial support to the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) on national action on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), capacity building to implement continent-wide asset recovery through the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR), as well as support for the establishment and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Afreximbank is one of the four ex-officio board members and a partner of CoDA and has been providing financial support to CoDA since 2020, which has helped CoDA to propel several initiatives across Africa.

This new multi-year funding cycle will enable CoDA to support medium- to long-term actions on these and other issues across the continent.

The multi-year support from Afreximbank is aimed at strengthening the capacity of CoDA to fulfil its mandate of increasing domestic resource mobilization by facilitating actions to reduce IFFs from Africa, supporting economic integration through the holistic implementation of the AfCFTA, and improving people’s lives through support for several developmental initiatives across Africa, including Africa’s ambitions in vaccine manufacturing.

Director, AU/AfCFTA Relations and Trade Policy, Afreximbank, Mr Yusuf Daya commented: “We are very pleased with our collaboration with CoDA over the past two years. Together, we have successfully mobilised our common partners around important initiatives such as regional integration and promoting the implementation of AfCFTA, not to mention the central issue of vaccines and immunisation in Africa.

“Building on these successes, we are committed to continue working with CoDA by strengthening our technical and financial support and have developed a three-year plan to complete our joint work and expand our intervention.”

Similarly, Executive Director, CoDA, Ms Aden-Osman said: “CoDA has benefitted significantly from Afreximbank’s financial and technical support since it became a special initiative of the latter. On behalf of its Board of Directors, CoDA would like to thank the President, Management and Board of Directors of Afreximbank for their continued support, the significant increase in the annual grant, and the provision of the multi-year grant. This will allow CoDA to mobilize the needed attention, commitment and action for the socio-economic development of Africa.”

With its broad coalition of partners, CoDA has been able to deliver key actions at national, regional and continental levels in support of its various development programmes. In addition to completing several of its ongoing country assessments on IFFs, CoDA launched an initiative in 2021 to increase access to vaccines and immunisation in Africa in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.