The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved 300 million dollars in support for the Eastern, Southern African Trade & Development Bank (TDB) this month. The financial support comes on the heels of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, which came into force in July 2019. The COMESA regional trade and project finance package consists of composite funded trade finance and project finance facilities, and an unfunded trade finance risk participation agreement. The project finance component will facilitate the delivery of export-oriented infrastructure, which will promote regional trade within the COMESA region, according to the statement from the Bank. It will benefit no less than 43 financial institutions operating in over 15 regional member countries, catalysing up to two billion dollars worth of trade over the three-year period. With a balance sheet size of 5.6 billion dollars as of December 2018, TDB has 22 countries in East, North and Southern Africa as well as two non-regional countries as shareholders.
