[ 2016-11-25 ]

Afreximbank announces export devt fund
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is
establishing a “Fund for Africa Export
Development” to help African countries respond
to the recurrent adverse economic shocks that have
affected the continent, participants in the
Bank’s Annual Structured Trade Finance Seminar
and Workshop taking place in Port Louis in
Mauritius have heard.

Dr. Hippolyte Fofack, Chief Economist of the Bank,
making one of the presentations at the four-day
seminar and workshop series which opened on 21
November, said that the new fund would have both
debt and equity options in order to promote
industrialization and export diversification and,
ultimately, reduce recurrent exposures to adverse
commodity price and terrorism-induced shocks.

In the presentation titled “Commodity Price and
Terrorism-Induced Shocks: Implications for African
Trade and Trade Finance”, Dr. Fofack said that
the Bank was also working on a mobile payment
platform to enhance intra-African trade. That
platform would incorporate a clearing mechanism
that would reduce the trade costs associated with
the scarcity of foreign currency.

“The Bank is aggressively putting emphasis on
the promotion of intra-African trade and
industrialization and export development as part
of its long-term strategy for business and
development, and to ensure that member countries
are sufficiently equipped to cope with global
shocks and recurrent adverse terms of trade,” he
explained.

In another presentation, Gwen Mwaba, Director of
Trade Finance at Afreximbank, speaking on
Understanding the Basic Techniques of Structuring
Trade Finance Transactions, said that the role of
structured trade finance in risk mitigation lay in
the transfer of risk in financing transactions
from parties less able to bear those risks to
those more equipped to bear them in a manner that
ensured automatic reimbursement of advances from
the underlying transaction assets.

According to her, structured trade finance
converts uncertainty to some certainty (with
predictable cash-flow), thereby mitigating risks.
It also made unbankable deals to become bankable.

Other speakers, so far, have included Geoffrey
Wynne, Partner, Sullivan & Worcester UK LLP, who
spoke on “Supply chain versus Structured Trade
Finance: Similarities, Differences and Optimal
Approach,” and on “Legal, Regulatory and
Institutional Issues in Documenting and
Implementing Structured Trade and Commodity
Finance Deals”; Charles Corbett, Managing
Director at Standard Chartered Bank, on
“Financing In Turbulent Markets”; Kenneth
Aigbinode, CEO of Vintage Vantage Advisory,
Canada, on “Warehousing and Collateral
Management Structures for Managing Commodity
Financing Risks”; and Mike Marnell, a structured
trade finance consultant, who spoke on
“Trade-Backed Term Financing Deal Structures,
Principles, Challenges and Benefits”.

Dr. Hassan Abdallah Aly Salem, Under-Secretary at
the Egyptian Tax Authority; Shaileen Sreekeessoon,
Head of Strategy, Research and Innovation at SBM
Holdings, Mauritius; Ayodipo Ogunmoyela, Head of
Structured Trade Commodity Finance, First Bank,
United Arab Emirates; and Armin Eckerman, Managing
Partner at Eckerman and Partners, Malta, also made
presentations.

The seminar and workshop was declared open by
Rameswurlall Basant Roi, Governor of the Central
Bank of Mauritius, while Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing,
Chairman of SBM, gave a welcome statement and
Afreximbank President Dr. Benedict Oramah
delivered a keynote address.

The close to 200 participants from 22 countries
include senior executives from African banks and
financial institutions, regulatory institutions,
hedge funds, Africa country funds and venture
capital institutions, corporate entities engaged
in trade, manufacturing and privatized
infrastructure projects, Afreximbank’s trade
finance and project finance intermediaries,
African law firms and insurance firms are among
participants expected at this year’s seminar.

The four-day training started today with the
two-day Structured Trade Finance Seminar, to be
followed on 23 November by a workshop on agency
and syndications. A second workshop, titled
“Making factoring work for Africa,” will take
place on 24 November, with the objective of
raising awareness of factoring as an alternative
trade finance tool in Africa.

The holding of the Trade Finance Seminar and
Workshop is part of Afreximbank’s effort to
prepare African banks and financial institutions
to meet the trade finance needs of the continent
and is being organised in co-operation with the
Central Bank of Mauritius and SBM.

Source - Classfmonline

... go Back