Africa needs structured finance for effective financial trade ― Afreximbank

THE African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says Africa needs structured finance for effective financial trade to overcome uncertainty and economic difficulty to boost trade in the continent.

The bank’s President, Mr Benedict Oramah, made this known in a statement signed by the Head of Media, Afreximbank, Mr Obi Emekekwue, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Orama said that expertise in financial trade was in short supply in Africa, adding that `it is now commonly accepted that structured finance is an effective tool for financing trade in the context of uncertainty and economic difficulty.’’

He said in view of this, the bank had developed two flagship courses namely, ‘Fundamentals of Structured Trade Finance’ and ‘Advanced Structured Trade Finance,’ which it offers in alternate years for bankers.

“The event has also become an important 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 said that the seminar would equip African financial institutions, bankers, regulatory agencies and corporate and legal firms with skills for dealing with the challenges of financing transactions under heightened global economic uncertainty.

He said that the seminar would also focus on the Fundamentals of Structured Trade Finance.

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He expressed optimism that participants at the end of the seminar would acquire the skills and capacity to properly identify risks in typical trade finance transactions.

The bank president said the participants were expected to also be able to structure bankable trade and trade-related project finance deals of varying levels of complexity.

The statement disclosed that the bank would organise a Structured Trade Finance Seminar to equip stakeholders with skills to identify and solve finance challenges.

The annual seminar organised by Afreximbank will be hosted in Casablanca, Morocco from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9.

The 2018 seminar and workshop is being organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Morocco, will be the 18th in the series.