Indian exporters need to tap more African countries that have an almost ‘unlimited market’, according to David Rasquinha, managing director of Export Import Bank of India. Speaking at the International Trade Conclave organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kolkata recently, he said the bank was quite optimistic about the African continent.
India’s exports to Africa had increased from 7.5 per cent in 2009-10 to 8 per cent in 2017-18. Of the 54 African countries, there was significant trade with 47.
The bank is engaged in some infrastructure projects in Africa where the quantum of finance extended was close to $2.5 billion in aggregate, Rasquinha said. A railway project in Ghana was already under way where Exim Bank is having an exposure and it is also financing companies doing trade with Africa, he said.
The bank was bullish on renewable energy, power transmission, agriculture, textiles and sugar in the sub-continent, he said.
The bank may clock a 10 per cent growth, with its business likely to touch ₹1 lakh crore this fiscal, he added.
