Jibrin Abubakar
6 July 2009
The President of the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), Mr. Jean-Louis Ekra and the Assistant Minister of Finance and Development Planning of Republic of Botswana, Mr. Keletso Rakhudu have said that the Africa's foreign exchange reserves stood at $461 billion in 2008.
They also urged African governments with large foreign reserves in western banks to ensure that such reserves are kept with African Financial Institutions (AFIs).
Nigeria's foreign reserves, which peaked at over US$64 billion in 2008, have dropped to US$45 billion.
They spoke on Saturday in Gaborone, Botswana at the meeting of the advisory group on trade, finance and export development of Afreximbank.
Nigeria's Minister of State for Finance Mr. Remi Babalola, also attended the meeting of the advisory group on trade finance and export development as well as the board of directors' meeting and the shareholders' general meeting.
Rakhudu asserted that the current arrangement regarding the management of the continent's foreign exchange reserves does not serve the interest of African economies well.
He said, "Africa's foreign exchange reserves have been growing rapidly in recent times. In this regard, from a level of US$41.6 billion in 1995, Africa's reserves grew steadily to US$461 billion in 2008.
"Despite the sustained growth in the continent's foreign exchange reserves, many African countries continue to face balance of payment difficulties, especially during the present challenging times of global economic and financial crisis. Their trade, especially imports have been cut as a result.
"On the other hand, some African countries with large foreign reserve holdings with non-African (Western) banks are also receiving very low returns on such high reserves as a result of the present low rate of interest in international credit markets."
According to a statement by Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde, media aide to the Minister of State for Finance, the Botswanan minister advised that an arrangement should be made to ensure that part of the external large foreign reserve holdings of some African countries were harnessed to support African trade in the challenging global financial times.
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