ADDIS, 10 November, 2015 – Representatives of the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) are in Addis to raise awareness about its services to both the private and public sectors. The workshops, being held today, are part of a targeted strategy to launch operations in Ethiopia pending completion of Ethiopia’s membership, which is expected to occur soon. This follows the African Development Bank’s announcement in September that it had approved a $7.5 million soft loan for Ethiopia’s subscription fee to join ATI.
ATI provides political, investment and trade credit risk insurance to clients doing business in its member countries. The products are created to help countries attract more investments and to promote domestic trade by providing specialist insurance that mitigates against currency inconvertibility and exchange transfer, expropriation, trade embargoes, non-honouring of contracts and payment default among others. Another value addition is that ATI’s ‘A/Stable’ S&P rating increases the bankability of covered transactions and projects.
To date ATI has helped its member countries attract over $18 billion worth of trade and investments into their economies.
ATI plans to leverage Ethiopia’s anticipated $7.5 million subscription in order to insure over $3 billion worth of projects in Ethiopia in due course.
“In the last few years, Ethiopia has been a beacon to many international companies. With ATI standing behind it, I believe the country is now primed to attract record investments that will help to diversify the economy,” notes George Otieno, ATI’s Chief Executive Officer.
The high-level events feature comments by distinguished invited guests including Hon. Ahmed, Minister of Finance & Economy, Hon. Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union, Hon. Ato Teklewold Atnafu, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, Mr. Gabriel Negatu, Regional Director of the African Development Bank, Ms. Josephine Ngure, Resident Representative of the African Development Bank, and Mr. Admassu Tadesse, President and CEO of PTA Bank.
