THE International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, has signed a $17.5million syndicated Murabaha financing agreement with Gambia to support the country’s agricultural sector.
The Facility will be used to support the agriculture sector in Gambia through the import of inputs (fertilisers) and the purchase of agricultural produce (groundnut, groundnut seeds, cashew, etc). This financing is in line with the Framework Agreement signed between the two parties in May 2017 amounting to $210 million over a three-year period to support the key sectors of agriculture and energy. This operation is the third transaction approved by ITFC in 2017 under the new Framework Agreement for a total of $62.5 million
The agreement was signed by Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and Hon. Amadou Sanneh, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of The Gambia.
ITFC Chief Executive Officer, Hani Salem Sonbol, commented, ‘We are very excited for completing this transaction. It reaffirms the ITFC’s proven strategy of investing in key strategic sectors of our member countries and thus contributing towards the development of the agriculture industry in The Gambia which will lead to providing employment directly and indirectly to over 70 percent of the country’s workforce.’
The Gambia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Amadou Sanneh, thanked ITFC for its continued support and affirmed that The Gambia is still depending on tourism but agriculture remains the primary sector of the Gambian economy with 70 percent of the population of just over 2 million depending on agriculture.