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Nairobi, Kenya | Xinhua | The Africa Export Import (Afrexim) Bank has committed 133 billion shillings (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) to fund industrialization in Africa, the bank said on Thursday.
Maureen Mba, head of MANSA Initiative, Afrexim Bank told Xinhua in Nairobi that the funds will be made available to local banks in the continent for onward lending to industrialists in order to catalyze value addition of raw materials.
“The aim is to discourage the export of raw materials and instead encourage export of finished goods to the international markets,” Mba said on the sidelines of the launch of the Africa customer due diligence platform (mansa repository platform) in Kenya.
She said each African nation has a comparative advantage in the manufacture of specific goods that can compete globally.
Mba added that industrialization has been identified as an avenue to improve the socio-economic status of the people in the continent.
According to the pan-African bank, the continent loses enormous amounts of revenues annually through export of raw materials.
Mba observed that Africa is ready to pursue industrialization because it has the raw materials as well as the labor pool to achieve the agenda.
She added that through industrialization, Africa will be able to find a solution to the high youth unemployment.
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Xinhua
