2010 Press Releases
ATI Receives a $1 M Technical Assistance Grant from Japan, AfDB
NAIROBI, 14 January, 2010 – The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), Africa’s only multilateral political and credit risk insurer has been awarded by African Development Bank (AfDB) , a $1 million grant from Japan to support capacity building initiatives. The grant, administered under The Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) by the African Development Bank (AfDB) is a billion dollar joint initiative of Japan and the AfDB to promote private sector development in Africa. The grant was formalised today at a signing ceremony with Stewart Kinloch the Acting CEO of ATI, and Domina Buzingo, the Resident Representative of African development Bank to Kenya, and witnessed by His Excellency Shigeo Iwatani, Ambassador of Japan to Kenya.
The grant is expected to support ATI’s larger goal of transforming Africa into a prime source and destination for trade and investment. The funds will help improve the internal capacity of ATI to fulfil this objective. Specifically, the grant will help ATI strengthen its corporate governance and ICT infrastructure, implement a more streamlined underwriting system, enhance human resource management and create a trade market survey.
Once the grant activities are implemented, the AfDB would consider a financing package to support ATI’s growth strategy and to expand its activities and market penetration across the continent.
“We expect to scale up our business to a level that can support up to $1 billion of annual exports and imports by the end of 2012. The grant will help us strengthen internal processes so that we can respond more quickly and efficiently to the growing demand for our products within Africa”, noted Stewart Kinloch, ATI’s Acting Chief Executive.
ATI recorded tremendous growth in 2008 generating an 80% increase in Gross Written Premium and a 41% increase in the number of policies written. The business performance and financial results for 2009 reflect a similar trend. With a renewed ‘A’ rating in 2009 by Standard & Poor’s, ATI is the second highest rated institution in Africa. ATI’s 2009 results will be released during its Annual General Meeting to be held in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo in May.
The Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) is a component of the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance Initiative (EPSA), which is a billion-dollar joint initiative of Japan and the AfDB to stimulate inter and intra-regional trade, help local banks establish relationships with foreign banks and strengthen the financial capacity of local trade financing institutions in Africa. The FAPA trust fund provides untied grants for studies, technical assistance and capacity building for private sector projects and African institutions such as ATI. Since FAPA's creation in 2006, Japan has contributed USD 30 million while the AfDB has contributed USD 10 million.
The award of the present grant brings the total of FAPA commitments to about USD 26 million covering 32 projects across the African continent.
