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WASHINGTON, D.C. - ABRO Industries, Inc., of South Bend, Ind., is to receive an award as the 2008 Small Business Exporter of the Year for sub-Saharan Africa from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) at Ex-Im Bank's annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 17.

An exporter of automotive and industrial supply products, ABRO has used Ex-Im Bank insurance to more than double sales to sub-Saharan Africa in six years, from under $10 million in 2002 to $24 million in 2007. Nigeria's Coscharis Motors Limited in Lagos is ABRO's largest sub-Saharan African client by far, accounting for $23 million of the company's African exports in 2007. Other African sales supported under the insurance went to Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Gabon, Ghana and Zambia. Exports constitute 100 percent of ABRO's business, which totaled $117 million last year.

Africa accounts for almost half of the business insured under our Ex-Im Bank policy, said ABRO President Peter F. Baranay. We're projecting $25 million in sales to Africa for 2008. This supports our 24-person workforce, and some 1,500 jobs at our suppliers around the country. Clearly we would not be doing what we're doing today without Ex-Im Bank.

ABRO has skillfully used Ex-Im Bank multibuyer insurance to grow its business in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which offers important opportunities for U.S. small business exporters, and is one of Ex-Im Bank's highest priorities, said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President James H. Lambright. We hope ABRO serves as an example for other U.S. small businesses. They are a most worthy recipient of this award.

ABRO began working with Ex-Im Bank in 2002 under a single-buyer credit insurance policy to sell its products to Coscharis Motors in Nigeria. The company became a multibuyer-policy holder in 2003, and now has a special buyer credit limit for Coscharis Motors of $10 million under the policy.

ABRO's insurance broker, Trade Acceptance Group, is another Ex-Im Bank 2008 award-winner as Small Business Broker of the Year. We attended Ex-Im Bank's Annual Conference in 2002, and Trade Acceptance Group received the broker-of-the-year award that year, too, and we called them and have been working with them ever since, said Baranay.

Ex-Im Bank is the official export-credit agency of the United States. The independent, self-sustaining federal agency, now in its 74th year, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by financing the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export-credit insurance and direct loans. In fiscal year 2007, Ex-Im Bank authorized $12.6 billion in financing to support an estimated $16 billion of U.S. exports worldwide. The Bank authorized $3.4 billion in direct support of small businesses for the year. The 2,390 transactions in support of small business during 2007 represented 85.6 percent of all Ex-Im Bank transactions. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.