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Cairo, Egypt | THE INDEPENDENT | Egypt and the African Export-Import Bank are using next month’s annual meetings in the Mediterranean city of Alamein to position the country at the centre of Africa’s evolving trade and financial architecture, as policymakers push for deeper regional integration amid growing global economic fragmentation.
Hassan Abdalla, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, has said the 33rd Afreximbank Annual Meetings, scheduled for June 21-24, would serve as a platform to advance discussions on trade finance, industrialisation and reform of the international financial system.
Held under the patronage of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the gathering is expected to attract African heads of state, central bank governors, investors and corporate executives at a time when governments across the continent are seeking to accelerate intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“Egypt is honoured to host the 33rd Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Alamein, reflecting our continued commitment to supporting Africa’s economic integration, trade expansion and sustainable development,” Abdalla said, at a briefing in Cairo on April.13,
The meetings come as Egypt deepens its strategic partnership with Afreximbank, one of the continent’s most influential multilateral lenders. According to George Elombi, the bank has extended roughly $9.5bn in financing to Egypt over the past three years, supporting sectors ranging from manufacturing and infrastructure to energy, telecommunications and financial services.
Elombi said the annual meetings would focus on translating Africa’s trade ambitions into practical investment and infrastructure projects.
“Africa’s pace of growth will be driven by industrialisation and intra-African trade,” he said. “Achieving this will require significant improvements in processing, logistics and policy support from governments.”
The bank is also pushing ahead with several flagship initiatives designed to strengthen Africa’s financial autonomy. Mr Elombi highlighted plans for a pan-African Gold Bank aimed at formalising the continent’s gold trade, bolstering central bank reserves and reducing reliance on offshore refining and trading centres.
He also pointed to the planned $250mn Afreximbank African Trade Centre in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, launched in December last year, which is intended to support trade facilitation, payments, logistics and small business development across the region.
For Egypt, hosting the summit is as much an economic strategy as a diplomatic exercise. Officials expect the event to reinforce the country’s standing as a regional financial and business hub while providing a boost to tourism, hospitality and the meetings and conferences industry in Alamein, a city increasingly marketed as a high-end commercial and tourism destination on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
Over the past decade, Afreximbank’s annual meetings have evolved into one of Africa’s leading policy forums, reflecting the growing urgency among African governments and institutions to build regional supply chains, expand local currency settlement systems and reduce dependence on external financing markets.
Founded more than three decades ago and headquartered in Cairo, Afreximbank has become a key institutional backer of the AfCFTA agenda. The lender has also spearheaded the rollout of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, designed to facilitate cross-border trade in local currencies and reduce transaction costs across African markets.
By the end of 2025, the bank’s total assets and contingencies had risen to more than $48.5bn, underlining its expanding role in financing Africa’s trade and industrial ambitions.
