In his remarks, Consultant to Afreximbank on Financial Institutions/Trade Finance, Mr Ademola Adeyinka said that they are in a better position to partner financial institutions in Africa because they are interested in the growth of every member country.

According to Mr Adeyinka, Africa is home to five of the fastest growing economies in the world, with 14 of these economies exceeding 5 per cent. He noted that African trade has increased by 3 folds, that is up to USD 1.5 trillion and this is expected to increase again. Despite these figures however, Mr Adeyinka expressed concern that African trade  constitutes only 3 per cent of global trade.

He made these remarks at an interactive session in Accra organised by the bank on exploring ways to strengthen their relationship with African financial institutions to transform trade. He said that Afreximbank has a good credit rating that financial Institutions in Africa can leverage on adding that they are eager to support institutions and government in Ghana to promote their drive to industrialization.

Mr Adeyinka disclosed that the bank has designed a new software called the Mansa Repository Platform aimed at solving Consumer Due Diligence and Know Your Customer (KYC) problems with emphasis on African Financial Insitutions and will also compliment trade transformation for countries like Ghana.

He pointed out that the bank has other useful products and solutions that can help Ghanaian financial institutions handle most of the problems facing them. He said that the interactive session is being held because they have realised that Ghanaian banks are not making use of limits available to them.

He added that the bank has on-boarded more  than 170 African banks. That is, they have processed them for trade facilitation lines and aim to on-board 700 by the end of the 2019 financial year.

Afreximbank Guarantee Program has also been designed to offer bank guarantees to corporate and financial institutions to secure African transactions to investors, exporters and financiers.

Mr Afolabi Obisesan, Manager, Guarantees, Specialized Finance in a detailed presentation introduced the bank's trade facilitation program which includes Trade Institution Confirmation, Trade Insititution Confirmation Guarantee.and Irrevocable Investments Undertaking.

The bank, he said, is currently running their 5 year program scheduled to end in 2021. The program is centered on 4 broad areas; Intra-African Trade, Industrialization and Export Development, Trade Finance Leadership and Financial Soundness and Performance.

He stated that Afreximbank is the brainchild of the African Development Bank created to enhance trade finance in Africa. It is a multilateral financial institution with four branches in Abuja in Nigeria, Abidjan in Cote D'Iviore, Nairobi in Kenya and Harare in Zimbabwe. It began operations in 1993  and are headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.

It has a current membership of 50 African Countries and total assets of USD 11.91 as at December, 2018. (The interactive session saw the participation of some financial and corporate institutions in the country will also involve bilateral meetings in order to collaborate  with them. They encouraged banks and other financial institutions in Ghana to join Afreximbank.