- Afreximbank Leads Africa’s Structured Trade Finance Forum
Banks and other financial institutions involved in financing trade in Africa will gather in Mauritius from 21 to 24 November for a seminar organised by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
These include senior executives representing African banks and financial institutions, regulatory institutions, hedge funds, Africa country funds and venture capital institutions and corporate entities engaged in trade.
Others are manufacturing and privatised infrastructure projects, Afreximbank’s trade finance and project finance intermediaries, African law firms and insurance firms.
The move is to enhance Africa’s capacity to take advantage of opportunities offered by structured trade finance to boost activities in the face of challenging global economic environment marked by contracting demand and creeping protectionism.
Already, Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritius, Rameswurlall Basant Roi, will chair the opening ceremony, joined by the Chairman of State Bank of Bank Mauritius, Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing; Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles, Caroline Abel; and Chief Executive Officer of the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa, Kutoane Kutoane.
The Afreximbank 2016 yearly Structured Trade Finance Seminar will expose the more that 100 trade finance practitioners expected to attend to the fundamentals of the business structure.
Afreximbank President, Dr. Benedict Oramah, said that the organisation of the seminar was motivated by the bank’s goal of “strengthening the capacity of its partners and clients in understanding trade and trade-related project financing issues as they affect Africa.”
He said the development has become imperative, given the widening trade financing gap and the challenge of increasing the continent’s share of global trade.
“This would provide a platform for African bankers and other trade finance practitioners to meet and network, thereby making a major contribution in boosting African trade,” he said.
Oramah pointed out that many participants had successfully met clients’ trade finance needs by tapping into such contacts to facilitate cross-border business transactions.
