ATI Expands Partnership Network into the Middle East and North Africa Regions

MOU Signing with the Saudi Fund for Development

NAIROBI, KENYA, 29 October 2010 – The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) and the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) today formalised a partnership that aims to support and encourage trade financing in ATI’s African member countries. Under the terms of the agreement both parties will provide a full range of their programs to exporters and banks in Saudi Arabia and relevant African countries. H.E. Eng. Yousef I. Albassam, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of SFD and George Otieno, Chief Executive Officer of ATI signed the MOU.

This partnership will support ATI’s vision of building a global network to help boost African trade and investments. We see the Tte Middle East as fertile ground with tremendous growth potential. Through this agreement we hope to provide a bridge to the Saudi business community that will lead to more investments in Africa’s development, noted George Otieno, ATI’s Chief Executive Officer.

This is the first MOU ATI has signed with a Middle Eastern organisation. The arrangement builds on ATI’s partnership with the Export Guarantee Company of Egypt as the company continues to seek out opportunities to expand further into the North Africa and Middle East regions.

The SFD, based in Riyadh, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has signed several socio-economic agreements with governments in Sub Saharan Africa to further economic cooperation and to encourage trade activities between the Kingdom and Africa. The agreement with ATI supports this objective.