Deutsche Bank is providing a €57mn export credit agency-backed loan to support the construction of a large-scale automated agri-food production facility in Angola, as the country seeks to diversify its export portfolio. 

The 10-year loan is guaranteed by Italian export credit agency (ECA) Sace and Banco de Desenvolvimento de Angola (BDA). It is the first individual loan agreement finalised under a 2019 agreement between Deutsche Bank, BDA and the Angolan government. 

The financing will support the construction of a fully automated soybean and sunflower crushing plant in the municipality of Lobito, around 500km south of Luanda.  

The plant is supplied by Italian industrial engineering firm Andreotti Impianti, while the buyer is local company Carrinho Empreendimentos. 

The plant, which Deutsche Bank says will be the largest of its kind in Africa, is expected to take around two years to build, and once complete will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs. 

The bank says it is part of broader efforts on the part of its structured trade and export finance team to support agriculture, fishing and industrial development in Angola. 

“This production facility supports the local economic transition from reliance on commodities production, to creating higher value-add food processing, thereby reducing food imports and enabling local economic activity to rise up the value-chain,” says Werner Schmidt, Deutsche Bank’s head of structured trade export finance. 

Patrícia D’Almeida, BDA chief executive, adds the plant will be “a valuable contribution to Angola’s ongoing process of economic diversification”. 

The loan is the second transaction focused on the country Sace has announced this year. In January, it agreed to cover the provision of Italian medical supplies and equipment as part of three Angolan hospital projects financed by a €222mn loan from UniCredit. 

“We are one of the most active export credit agencies in Africa and this operation illustrates how Sace successfully supports Italian companies even in very complex projects,” says chief business officer Bernardo Attolico.