The UAE's Etihad Credit Insurance is partnering with the African Trade Insurance Agency to provide trade finance to exporters operating in both markets. Reuters.
The UAE's Etihad Credit Insurance is partnering with the African Trade Insurance Agency to provide trade finance to exporters operating in both markets. Reuters.
The UAE's Etihad Credit Insurance is partnering with the African Trade Insurance Agency to provide trade finance to exporters operating in both markets. Reuters.
The UAE's Etihad Credit Insurance is partnering with the African Trade Insurance Agency to provide trade finance to exporters operating in both markets. Reuters.

UAE and Africa credit agencies sign deal to bolster trade ties


Fareed Rahman
  • English
  • Arabic

The UAE and Africa’s export credit agencies signed an agreement to support trade ties and boost exports between the two markets.

As part of the deal, Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) and African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) will provide trade finance solutions to exporters operating in the UAE and Africa, ECI said in a statement on Wednesday.

The two entities will also co-operate in boosting their respective insurance and financing capabilities to support businesses.

“This collaboration will give our exporters the confidence to access the African region’s diverse markets and resources with state-backed assurances and safeguards against commercial and political uncertainties,” Massimo Falcioni, chief executive of ECI, said.

The trade ties between the UAE and African countries have been growing over the past few years. The value of non-oil trade between the Emirates and Africa grew 10 per cent to reach $40.7 billion in the first nine months of 2020, ECI said, citing recent data published by state news agency Wam.

Exporters in various sectors, including metals, vehicles, steel and aluminium, agriculture, transport and renewable energy, among others, are expected to benefit from the partnership between ECI and ATI.

The agreement “comes at an opportune moment as ATI has ... mandate that supports trade and private sector growth in the region, particularly in the wake of the coronavirus that has affected global economies,” Manuel Moses, chief executive of ATI, said.

Last year, the ECI signed a similar agreement with Israel's export credit agency Ashr'a and India's Export Credit Guarantee Corporation.

Established in 2018, ECI provides export guarantees and trade insurance to mitigate the political and commercial risks of international trade on behalf of the UAE government.

The ECI extended Dh420 million ($114.3m) worth of trade credit support to small and medium enterprises in the first 11 months of 2020 to help companies maintain liquidity amid the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown.

Nairobi-based ATI provides insurance to companies, investors, and lenders interested in doing business in Africa.

PRISCILLA
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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now

Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.

The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.

1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):

a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33

b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.

2. For those who have worked more than five years

c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.

Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.

The Details

Kabir Singh

Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series

Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa

Rating: 2.5/5 

EU Russia

The EU imports 90 per cent  of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40 per cent of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. 

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.