African bankers complete Afreximbank’s structured trade finance training

Categories: Press Releases

Media Contact: Obi Emekekwue (oemekekwue@afreximbank.com; Tel. +202-2456-4238; Mobile +2010-2086-6222)

Cairo, 09 November 2012 – About 80 senior bankers and officers of financial institutions from countries across Africa have completed a specialized training programme in structured trade finance organized by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Cairo to equip them to deal with risks in financing trade under a difficult politico-economic environment and changing trade counterparties.

The training, held from 5 to 7 November, consisted of a two-day seminar on the fundamentals of structured trade finance and a one-day two-workshop segment dealing, respectively, with financial modelling in structured trade finance project and with promoting and financing trade between North and Middle Africa.

The participants included bankers and officials from Cameroun, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Several others came from the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Afreximbank introduced the annual seminar/workshop programme in 1999 to help to raise the structured trade finance capabilities of African banks and financial institutions that are actively engaged in promoting and financing African trade and trade-related projects, Jean-Louis Ekra, President of Afreximbank, said at the opening. “The programme is also intended to provide a platform for the Bank to strengthen business relationships with its different clients and partner institutions through the networking opportunities it provides”.

Also speaking at the opening, Mona Omar, Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs of Egypt, said that to compete with the rest of the world, Africa needed to resolve its skills gap and overcome its technical limitations. In that regard, Ambassador Omar said that recent developments in the global and African financial environments meant that African banks must continuously introduce innovative and tailor-made financial products and services in order to meet the financing needs of their clients and to effectively play the role of financial intermediation.

By providing the specialised training programme to enhance the capabilities and skills of African bankers and traders, Afreximbank was contributing to enhancing the capacity of African banks to play their intermediation roles and to contribute to the socio-economic development of the continent, she said.

About Afreximbank:
The African Export Import Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors to finance and promote intra- and extra-African trade. Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organization, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations. AFREXIMBANK is headquartered in Cairo. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com