thus, bank of uganda ’ s collaboration with various commercial banks in the disbursement of acf is intended to ensure that administration costs are kept low and that these financial institutions that are well versed with risk assessment in credit markets optimize their specializations. apart from government initiatives, there are a number of initiatives led by private sector financial institutions that smes may call upon namely, lease financing, credit purchase financing, equity financing, venture capital financing, and financing through mergers & acquisitions. for example, smes such as ugachick limited and commercial microfinance limited received equity financing from messrs development finance company of uganda ( dfcu ), east african development bank ( eadb ) and the european investment bank ( eib ). 5 our development bank – udb and eadb have also to the extent possible extended credit to credible entrepreneurs. despite the existence of these opportunities, some smes are not either aware of them or do not know how to access them. today, we are here to talk about another medium to long term finance provider – afreximbank. the afreximbank was established in october 1993 by african governments, african development bank, african private and institutional investors as well as non - african financial institutions and private investors for the purpose of financing, promoting and expanding intra - african and extra - african trade. the bank has an authorized share capital that was revised to us $ 5 billion from us $ 750 million to expand its capacity to extend credit. afreximbank ’ s mission is to stimulate a consistent expansion, diversification and development of african trade while operating as a first class, profit - oriented, socially responsible financial institution and a centre of excellence in african trade matters. 6 in terms of services, afreximbank has three broad services namely, ( i ) credit ( trade and project financing ) ; ( ii ) risk bearing ( guarantees and credit insurance ) ; and ( iii ) trade information and advisory services. in this regard, a number of countries have benefited. ibid. opcit. http : / / afreximbank. com / afrexim / en / aboutus / backgroundandconstitutivedocuments. aspx bis central bankers ’ speeches for instance, afreximbank entered a competitive bid and won the mandate from kenya airways to arrange and participate in a us $ 2 billion syndicated aircraft acquisition financing facility for the purchase of 9 new boeing 787

– 800s ( b787s ) dream liners, one boeing 717 - 300 er and 10 embraer e190 aircrafts. some of us have travelled using some of these aircrafts. in west africa, the afreximbank has extended loans for building multimillion power projects and value addition in cocoa. in uganda, afreximbank during its annual general meeting ( agm ) held in kampala, uganda in 2008 extended a loan of us $ 10 million to be accessed through uganda development bank ( udb ). unfortunately, the absorption capacity of the ugandan projects remains low such that the bulk of the us $ 10 million remains unused. while there is a need to increase the value of loans extended by afreximbank through increased publicity, there is a need to encourage ugandan companies to improve their absorption capacity of these resources. in order to increase the loan amounts of afreximbank, there is a need for ugandan commercial banks to enter into collaborative relationships with afreximbank. the essence of this relationship will be to utilize the knowledge of ugandan commercial banks regarding the credit worthiness of local smes coupled with the finances of afreximbank to extend the latter ’ s footprint in uganda ’ s medium to long term credit market. i urge all those from the business community to pick lessons from this road show and devise how best to benefit from afreximbank ’ s largesse. i encourage you to attend the one - on - one meetings scheduled for this afternoon and tomorrow to further explore the opportunities for your various entities arising out of this engagement. it is now my pleasure to invite the executive vice president of the afreximbank to give his remarks. bis central bankers ’ speeches