The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has committed to support the Malawi-South Sudan trade deal by financing and promoting trade between the two distant countries.
A while ago, Malawi minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe held talks in a closed meeting with Afreximbank President-cum-Chairman Benedict Orama in Juba, Republic of South Sudan
where the bank has devoted to bankroll trade arrangements between the two Least Developed Countries (LCDs)
On Thursday June 10, 2021, Malawi and Africa’s youngest nation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which now allows the former to export maize, maize flour, sugar, rice, groundnuts and beans to the latter.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Nation Online after holding the talks with Orama, Gwengwe said the Cairo-based Afreximbank vowed to support trade financing while also committing to act as a guarantor on behalf of importers and exporters from the two countries.
According to Gwengwe, Malawi’s exports to South Sudan in 2020 were estimated at a meagre $3million (about K2.4 billion) while imports were estimated at only $15,585 (about K12.5 million).
Essentially, this means that the trade gap between the two nations weighed in favour of Malawi during that trade year.
“This data is an indication by all of us that we are yet to learn how to trade with each other yet we accommodate non-reciprocal overseas trade. We have therefore decided to bring this anomaly to an end.
Of course, the irony is that the cooperation being entered into through the MoU may appear strange while the non-existent trade between our two nations is quite okay.
This is a fallacy we have decided to reject for the sake of the future prosperity of our people. We need each other, we have to build an ecosystem that works for our two countries and yes, we can,” said Gwengwe in a telephone interview.
