With US$12.6 million contracts insured in 2013 and US$6.5 million in 2012, SACE and ATI today reaffirm the increasing effectiveness of their long-lasting partnership to support trade & investment between Italy and Africa.
The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) and Italy’s Export Credit Agency and insurance-financial group SACE, today announced record results obtained in 2013 through their risk-sharing partnership. ATI and SACE have almost doubled the volumes of Italian exports to Africa insured in the past year, with contracts totalling US$12.6 million.
Initiated in 2009, when SACE invested US$10 million in ATI, the partnership was further strengthened in 2010, when SACE was elected to the Board of the Agency, and again in 2011, when SACE established a full-time presence in ATI’s Nairobi Head Office.
“The creation of such collaborative frameworks has been a milestone initiative to enhance our capacity to support trade & investment in Africa,” declared Riccardo Fanelli, Head of SACE’s Sub-Saharan operations. “Here SACE has an overall exposure of almost € 1 billion and new projects worth € 250 million are currently being evaluated, particularly in the sectors of industrial technologies, a field in which Italian SMEs excel. These range from machinery and electrical appliances to infrastructure and construction materials. For the countries where SACE and ATI operate, this translates into more jobs, resources and opportunities”. The partnership between ATI and SACE is helping to set a standard for the way companies do business in Africa. “This is a model that other Export Credit Agencies in Europe and other developed markets could follow. It is a way of leveraging a country’s, or in this case, an entire continent’s existing resources to avoid duplication of efforts,” commented Jef Vincent, ATI’s Chief Underwriting Officer.
Many of the transactions involving Italian companies have provided African manufacturers in the agricultural sector with more efficient technology, allowing them to increase their production capabilities. In addition, the partnership has supported companies importing quality goods to a chain of retail outlets across East Africa as well as to the booming construction industry. Transactions involved either direct financing or the supply of goods and services to sectors such as agriculture, energy, manufacturing and road construction.
“The availability of high-end goods is providing the consumer and project owners with better choices, while also helping manufacturers to produce higher quality goods that they can then export for a higher price. Ultimately, this partnership with SACE is helping our member countries to scale-up the value of their exports while also helping them to build more sustainable and sound infrastructure,” notes Mr. Vincent.
