Afghanistan Trust Fund reports $ 204 million profit

KABUL (TOLOnews): Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, Central Bank supreme council member and board member of the Afghan Trust Fund in Switzerland, told TOLOnews that since its establishment until December 2023, the fund has made a profit of $204 million dollars.

According to Mehrabi, it is expected that the profit of this trust fund will reach $250 million dollars by the end of this month.

Shah Mohammad Mehrabi said: “The Afghanistan Trust Fund has made significant progress in the area of asset protection since its establishment. Initially, the assets of this fund were deposited in the Bank for International Settlements to benefit from its advantages. Following that, this fund has secured its privileges and immunities from the Swiss government, which legally protects its assets.”

Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Chamber of Industries and Mines said that the provisions of the trust fund should be spent on the economic growth of Afghanistan.

Shirbaz Kaminzada, head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Industry and Mines said: “We hope that the amount deposited in the trust fund will be used for the development of the country and its industry.”

At the same time, the Ministry of Economy once again asked the international community to unconditionally release all of Afghanistan’s assets.

Abdul Latif Nazari, Deputy Minister of Economy said: “The frozen funds and assets of the Afghan people should be released as soon as possible; the principal of this money and its contents should be made available to the Central Bank of Afghanistan, this is the right of the Afghan people.”

More than $9 billion of Afghanistan’s assets in foreign banks were frozen after the return of the Islamic Emirate, of which $7 billion are held in banks in the United States, and Washington created the Afghanistan Trust Fund on September 15, 2023, to hold half of these assets in Switzerland.