The membership will make Madagascar eligible to automatically access the products and facilities offered by Afreximbank, which include trade finance facilities, project finance services as well as trade information and advisory services. Afreximbank will also provide support for the development of local policies and the implementation of industrial parks and special economic zones in the country.
The membership was formalised by Madagascar’s foreign affairs minister Beatrice Jeanine Atallah on June 24, by signing a so-called ‘instrument of accession to the agreement establishing the bank’, which is required for all countries that have joined after Afreximbank was established in 1993. This commits a country to take a number of necessary steps before proceeding to ratify the establishment agreement and fully activate their membership.
The membership comes just a few days after the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved Madagascar as a non-regional prospective member, bringing the bank’s total approved memberships to 80. The country will officially join once it has complete the required domestic processes and deposited the first instalment of capital with the bank.
