Egypt's keenness to back the Afreximbank's efforts to support the African continent amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been affirmed by Minister of Finance Minister Mohamed Maait Maait made his comments during a meeting held on Thursday with President of the Afreximbank Benedict Oramah. Afreximbank aims to manage financial, economic, and health impacts and shocks of epidemics, and helps maintain economic stability of African countries in a way that contributes to pushing forward economic growth and boosting intra-regional trade. In his meeting with President of Afreximbank Benedict Oramah, the minister said that Egypt also supports efforts of the bank to facilitate access to COVID-19 vaccines in African countries, in order to help preserve the safety of citizens and support African economies in light of the pandemic. Oramah presented the bank's various activities, the most important of which are: seeking to provide facilities for African countries to obtain vaccines against the emerging COVID-19, and contracting with major suppliers to provide doses at affordable prices in order to vaccinate the largest possible percentage of the people of the African continent. Additionally, the Afreximbank pays efforts in pushing the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), most notably, launching a project to settle payments in local currencies. As well as, discussing ways to implement the decision of the African Finance Ministers Group (F15) regarding increasing the bank's capital to allow more resources to enable it to carry out its duties to serve the African continent.
