CAPE TOWN: The country’s premier export finance institution Exim Bank, which is looking to disburse $10 billion to Africa in the next three years, wants the credit which has a mix of concessional and commercial rates to be used for boosting India’s services exports to that continent. This is a shift from Exim Bank’s credit disbursal strategy to Africa — which was mainly to help build infrastructure and industrial projects.
“Infrastructure building is something that China has been doing in Africa. With its huge financial resources, China probably has greater capacity to do it than India,” said Exim Bank Chairman and Managing Director, Yaduvendra Mathur.
“India’s strength is in services, especially in sectors such as healthcare, information technology, education and even agriculture-related services. So we want to help in increasing India’s services exports to Africa.” The change in approach follows the government giving a greater say to Exim Bank in identifying India’s best interests while it promotes economic diplomacy.
Mr. Mathur — who is leaving for Africa to be there when President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurates Exim Bank’s office in Cote d’Ivoire (or Ivory Coast) on Tuesday — said as part of the new strategy, it is also important to encourage more Indians to move to Africa on short-term projects in services sectors. Exim Bank has been extending credit to Africa through concessional Lines of Credit, Buyer’s Credit (meant to finance imports of overseas buyers, in this case African buyers, from India) and through other lending mechanisms.
