- Mottley urges CARICOM nations to join Afreximbank trade pact
Prime Minister Mia Mottley has urged CARICOM countries that have not yet signed a trade agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to do so before the bank’s president, Professor Benedict Oramah, leaves office.
Four of CARICOM’s 15 members, including Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, have not joined the partnership, nearly a year after the pan-African multilateral financial institution set up a CARICOM office in Barbados.
Mottley praised Oramah for providing COVID vaccines to the Caribbean at a time when the region was not receiving assistance from almost anybody else.
She praised Afreximbank for underwriting therapeutic equipment and vaccines for those who wanted to use that pool to procure them.
Mottley highlighted the outgoing Afreximbank chief’s role in launching the first ACTIF in Barbados in 2022, which has grown into an annual event.
She praised Oramah for making a significant difference to African and Caribbean civilizations and hoped that his successor would follow in his footsteps.
