How C’River Will Execute $3.5bn Afrexim Bank Mandate, Says Otu’s Aide

Bassey Inyang in Calabar

A Senior Special Adviser to the Governor of Cross River State and Director-General Bureau for Public Private Partnership (BPPP), Dr. Francis Ntamu, has explained how the state will execute its recently secured $3.5 billion mandate instrument with Afrexim Bank for the execution of legacy projects.

Ntamu explained that under the arrangement, Afrexim Bank is to source private sector equity partners/ non-recourse finance of about $3.5 billion for some of the state legacy assets, stressing that this was not a loan facility but rather an arrangement where the bank will bring in investors who will get money from them to execute the projects.

Projects covered by the arrangement include Obudu Ranch Resort, Tinapa Resort, Obudu International Airport, and other infrastructural facilities.

Ntamu gave this insight while speaking on the sidelines of a recent Business to Government (B to G) meeting between the Cross River State Government and officials of the African Import Export bank (AFREXIM) in Cairo, Egypt.

He said that by the initiative, the Bank would earn success fees from footprints on the matching of equity partners with the respective project opportunities.

According to him, “Beyond the mandate, Afrexim coordinated a far-reaching B-to-G session with the high-level mission delegation with the state Governor, Senator Bassey Out, in attendance,” adding that the quality of sessions and follow-up commitments was resounding.

He added: “In my opinion, this singular move signals the commitment of the government for the first time in our recent past to own, energise and actualise projects such as Tinapa initiated by previous administrations.”

Ntamu said that the path taken by the state is a strategy aimed at adopting plain vanilla ways and means in extinguishing the state debt in the long run with sustainable vista for socioeconomic growth and development

It is recalled that Governor Otu, who was in Egypt last week for a workshop, also visited the African Import Export bank (AFREXIM) in Cairo to explore partnership for key infrastructure projects to be undertaken in the state.