Minister Loustau Lalanne expressed satisfaction over Seychelles’ chairmanship of the Board of Governors of the Eastern and Southern Trade Development Bank (TDB)
August 02, 2018
Finance Minister Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, outgoing Chair of the Board of Governor, BOG addressed delegates at the opening of the 34rd Annual General Meeting of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, TDB held in Kampala, Uganda on 31st July 2018.
The 34th AGM is a special annual meeting as it took stock of the closure of the 2013-17 corporate plan, and inaugurated the commencement of the 2018-22 plan.
In the presence of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, Ruhakana Rugunda, Minister Loustau Lalanne expressed satisfaction over Seychelles’ chairmanship of the Board of Governors of the TDB.
Minister Loustau Lalanne stated that the Bank had yet another good year, with operational and financial performance continuing its upward trajectory. In 2017 the Bank recorded a 24% year-on-year growth in its total assets, and 19% year-on-year growth in its shareholder capital. This is the result of successful mobilization of investment from existing and new Member States, as well as existing and new institutional investors.
“The new injections of equity capital, combined with continued healthy profits being achieved, have resulted in total shareholder funds crossing the 1 billion US dollar mark. This surpasses by 30% the 785 million USD growth target for 2017 in the Bank’s corporate plan”, says Minister Lalanne.
As part of the new Corporate Plan 2018-22 which was approved last year and put into motion this year, the Bank plans to support Member Countries to make progress towards the SDGs as reflected in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, with consideration of the various trade and sectoral strategies of COMESA, the EAC, SADC and IGAD.
The Bank will continue to mobilize resources to support the financing of sustainable growth and transformation, with continued pursuit of diversification, across geography, sector, product and funding. The sectoral scope will continue to cover priority sectors such as infrastructure, agribusiness, industry and energy with some focus on renewable energy.
The Prime Minister of Uganda Ruhakana Rugunda who officially opened the meeting praised the Bank for being a crucial partner in developing and integrating Africa.
“We are proud as Africa that we have our own Bank that can offer long term financing for our own projects. The bank has grown by 74% since making its investments 4years back. It has also financed major projects in trade, industry and agriculture” he said.
The 34th AGM was also an opportunity to welcome to new Member States of South Sudan, Eswatini and Madagascar as well as new institutional shareholders, the OPEC Fund for International Development and the Development Bank of Belarus.