The seminar on trade finance in Africa, which took place in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, came to a close on November 08, 2024. Organized by the African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, this seminar, which brought together over 350 participants from the finance, insurance, investor and regulatory sectors in Africa, was intended as a platform for innovative solutions aimed at strengthening the African financial system, which still suffers from many things, but which also gives hope.
With their certificates in hand, these finance, insurance and regulatory professionals, and even investors, hope to be part of the wind of change in the world of trade finance in Africa. In their profession, change is inevitable, especially in an era where digital technology is taking over, and for this reason, they find relevant, the seminar on trade finance in Africa.
Today, we live in a global economy, and the world has become a small village. At a time when we’re talking about boosting intra-African trade, digital technology should really take center stage, and it’s one of the points raised in this seminar that struck me the most. In our work, there’s a lot of paperwork that creates so much inefficiency, and the adoption of digital technology is no longer debatable.
Brice MUGHOGHO, Business development Officer at EDF
I’m going home with lots of information and when I get back to my country, I’m going to organize all the documentation I need to prepare a well-thought-out financing package. I’ve met people in the investment sector and I hope some of them will finance our electricity generator project.
ADEBAYO LAWAL, Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Energy Company Ltd
Organized annually by the African import-export bank Afreximbank, the Trade Finance Seminar is now in its 24th year. Several topics are proposed to these professionals by experts. Topics like structured trade finance, how to navigate through turbulent times,or how to adopt resilient banking strategies in a rapidly changing landscape..
This type of training is available all over the world, but you usually have to travel to the US, to London, to Singapore, etc, and not many banks can afford to send large teams of people there. So, when we bring the experts to the African continent. So, just for three days we could train 350 people. If banks decide to send their staff for training, maybe one individual would go per organization because it’s expensive. So, we do believe that by enabling and transferring these skills, more people can then stop rejecting transactions which are otherwise unbankable because concepts like structured trade finance make unbankable transactions bankable. So, the hope is that we will then see more financing going on on the African continent.
Gwen MWABA, Managing Director, Trade Finance & Correspondent Banking, Afreximbank
Over 350 finance professionals and investors took part in the seminar on trade finance in Africa. The final day was dedicated to a workshop on factoring, a little-known practice in Africa that could be a game-changer for the financing of African micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.