2011 Annual Seminar/Workshops Of Afreximbank

Categories: Press Releases

The African Export-Import Bank (the “Bank” or “Afreximbank) today announced that it will be hosting the 2011 Edition of its Annual Seminar/Workshop on Structured Trade Finance and Factoring at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana, during November 29 – December 2, 2011. The 2011 Annual Seminar/Workshop, which is the eleventh in the series of the Bank’s Annual Seminar/Workshop on “Structured Trade Finance”, is aimed at acquainting senior African bankers with key issues in structured trade finance and how it can be used to promote greater intra- and extra-African trade.

According to the Seminar Programme unveiled today, the Course is intended to: (a) equip participants in structuring complex trade project finance deals; (b) create an opportunity for a proper evaluation and understanding of the new financing challenges that the changes in the global and African environments portend in the near to medium term; (c) equip participants with the knowledge of the financing tools and instruments that are currently being used or being proposed for use in financing African trade within the challenging African operating environments; (d) understand the programmes and facilities Afreximbank is, or will be, introducing in the near term to deal with the challenges in its operating environment; and (e) create an opportunity for networking amongst African bankers with a view to making them develop correspondent banking relationships amongst themselves in furtherance of regional trade.

A one day workshop on “Principles and Practice of Syndicated Lending” scheduled for December 1, 2011 at the same venue will deepen participants’ understanding of syndicated loans and risk sharing principles in the co-financing of viable trade and project ventures by African banks. An accomplished banker with several years of experience in arranging syndicated loans will be leading the workshop on syndications. A second workshop on “Achieving Success through Factoring”, scheduled to hold on December 2, 2011, at the same venue, is aimed at equipping African factoring companies and banks with significant factoring business, with the requisite skills and tools for arranging export factoring (through which to support short term exports of African goods and services); import factoring (to support African importers); and domestic factoring (to supports SMEs in export/services supply chain), to assist African traders to compete on near equal footing in global markets.

“Our expectation is that the Seminar and the Workshops will provide participants with the requisite knowledge and instruments needed to grapple with emerging challenges in the rapidly evolving global and African financial markets,” said Mr. Jean Louis EKRA, the President of Afreximbank. Over 120 senior African bankers are expected to attend the seminar/workshops, which are expected to be led by internationally renowned professional drawn from around the world.This year’s seminar/workshop will be hosted by Afreximbank in collaboration with Bank of Ghana (BOG), Ghana Bankers’ Association (GBA), and the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The seminar/workshop is being organized for the benefit of senior executives of banks, specialised funds, and trading companies in African countries.

The African Export-Import Bank (“Afreximbank” or the “Bank”) was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, as well as non-African financial institutions and private investors for the purposes of financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. The Bank was established by the adoption of its basic constitutive documents, namely, the Agreement for the Establishment of the Bank (the “Establishment Agreement”), which confers on the Bank the status of an international organization, and the Charter of the Bank, governing its corporate structure and operations.

Afreximbank is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt and has two branch offices located in Harare (Zimbabwe) and Abuja (Nigeria).