On 7 February 2017, an ACBF delegation led by the Executive Secretary, Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie had a working meeting with three (3) Officials of the Government of the Republic of Egypt namely:
- H.E. Ahmed Kouchouk, Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies and Institutional Reforms,
- H.E. Ambassador Mohamed Edrees, Assistant Foreign Affairs Minster for African Affairs and
- H.E. Ambassador Amgad Abdel Ghaffar, Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister for Organizations
In his introductory remarks, Ambassador Edrees welcomed the ACBF delegation and indicated that this visit will pave the way for the beginning of a strong cooperation between ACBF and the Government of Egypt. The Executive Secretary briefed the Egyptian party on the mandate and the governance of ACBF and its achievements on the continent. The Vice Minister of Finance was interested to know more about ACBF and its operations. He said that the Government of Egypt is willing to revive its cooperation with African countries and to share its best practices and experiences in capacity development. A partnership with ACBF could be a catalytic in this regard. The ACBF delegation also expressed the view that a partnership between the Foundation and Egypt would constitute a gateway for seeking Gulf countries’ support to capacity development in Africa through ACBF. The issue on membership of Egypt to the Foundation was particularly discussed and the Vice-Minister promised to seriously consider and to follow it up with the Minister of Finance.
The ensuing discussion covered how ACBF should position itself in the African Union architecture in order to leverage the various partnerships between Africa and the rest of the World, and especially with the League of Arab countries.
The Executive Secretary expressed ACBF’s gratitude to all officials for the meeting and promised to follow-up on these milestone discussions to build a win-win partnership between Egypt and ACBF.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of ACBF’s mission t to Afreximbank in Cairo (Egypt) during which ACBF signed a memorandum of understanding governing the partnership between ACBF and Afreximbank.
