The Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the equity investment fund created recently by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), will catalyse foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into Africa’s trade and export sectors, President of the bank, Benedict Oramah has said.

Speaking in Tunis during the opening of the Financing Investment and Trade in Africa conference organized by the Tunisia-Africa Business Council, Oramah said that Afreximbank’s vision was to leverage $1 billion in support of FEDA’s mission and to catalyze four times that amount in FDI in five years.

He explained that the kind of equity funding currently available in Africa was not appropriate for turning the continent into the trade hub which it needed to become in order to achieve desired growth, saying that FEDA would ensure that investors’ investments were protected under the immunities and privileges available to Afreximbank and that the investments enjoyed tax privileges and incentives.