News

Washington, D.C.: Export-Import Bank of the United States Chairman James A. Harmon will offer an outlook on United States investment in Africa and recap his recent 12-day business development mission to four sub-Saharan African countries in a roundtable discussion for press Friday, November 19, 1999 at 1 p.m. EST at the Washington Foreign Press Center. The event will be broadcast live on the Internet at the Foreign Press Center Web site http://www.fpc.gov.

The Washington Foreign Press Center is located in Suite 898 of the National Press Building at 14^th & F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. The event is open to foreign press. For more information contact Liza Davis at (202) 724-1560 or Nancy Publicover at (202) 565-3205.

During visits to Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Mozambique Harmon announced that Ex-Im Bank is now financing private sector transactions in Nigeria for the first time in 10 years and in Mozambique for the first time in 30 years. To promote trade with small and medium-sized businesses in Africa, Ex-Im Bank is also providing guarantees and export credit insurance for transactions denominated in South Africa's rand.

In fiscal year 1999 Ex-Im Bank authorized $531 million to finance U.S. exports to Angola, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe — which compares to $49 million in financing to five countries in fiscal year 1998. Ex-Im Bank is open to consider business under its traditional financing programs in 32 sub-Saharan African countries and project finance funding is available in 47 sub-Saharan African countries.

Ex-Im Bank is an independent U.S. government agency that assists in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to developing markets all over the world, by providing export credit insurance, loan guarantees and direct loans. Ex-Im Bank supported nearly $17 billion in U.S. exports of U.S. exports in fiscal year 1999.