Nairobi, 13 November 2015: – Africa can minimise how much it is affected by global shocks by taking advantage of the services and programmes available from strong African multilateral development finance institutions like the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Dr. Patrick Njoroge, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, said in Nairobi today.
In a statement on his behalf by Anne Muoki, Assistant Director in the Bank, during the final session of the 15th Afreximbank Structured Trade Finance Seminar, Dr. Njoroge said that the continent’s over-dependence on external financing sources made it vulnerable to such shocks.
Because Afreximbank was a home-grown institution, it understood the unique requirements and needs of African businesses, he explained, saying that if Africa was to achieve the desired growth, it should effect a change in the way it sought financing for trade activities.
The Governor urged the participants to share the knowledge they had acquired during the four-day seminar with their colleagues and counterparts in their home countries upon their return.
Also speaking, Dr. Hippolyte Fofack, Afreximbank’s Chief Economist, commended the Central Bank of Kenya its support for the seminar and said that the training provided participants with the tools to effectively structure bankable trade finance transactions adapted to the specific context of African markets.
At the official closing ceremony, Dr. George Elombi, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Governance and Legal Services, said that the Bank had identified structured trade finance as an important tool for financing African trade.
He added that the Bank was actively promoting factoring and forfaiting in order to meet the financing needs of Africa’s small and medium sized enterprises.
Some 120 participants from 24 countries across Africa received certificates for completing the training programme, which featured experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, China, India and Africa sharing their knowledge with the African bankers, legal practitioners, insurers, financial institutions, funds, venture capital institutions and corporate entities engaged in trade finance and trade-related projects.
The training, which consisted of a two-day four-session seminar on 10 and 11 November, followed by a two-day workshop on “Receivables financing: factoring, forfaiting and supply chain financing”, was organized in partnership with the Central Bank of Kenya.
Media Contact: Fleur Tchibota (ftchibota@afreximbank.com; Tel. +202-2456-4260)
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Thanks to all those who attended our Seminar. For the others, catch the highlights here ▶ https://t.co/ZbdGd6fqPk pic.twitter.com/rZFF3oXLaD
— Afreximbank (@afreximbank) November 16, 2015
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About Afreximbank:
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. The Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors. 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. Since 1994, Afreximbank has approved almost $35 billion in credit facilities for African businesses, including about $4.5 billion in 2014. Afreximbank is headquartered in Cairo. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com