AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
«ACCESS TO FINANCE FOR SMES WOULD PLAY A KEY ROLE IN INTRA-REGIONAL TRADE» The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a pan-African multilateral financial institution whose mandate is to finance and promote intraand extra-African trade, has been accompanying the implementation process of the AfCFTA, since its first steps in 2018. This includes the creation of a dedicated fund, «MANSA», a pan-African due diligence framework for financial institutions, and the deployment of a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. And more broadly, through advocacy in favor of the continent’s businesses, especially SMEs, so that they are the primary beneficiaries of the Agreement.
Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the IntraAfrican Trade Initiative at Afreximbank - Photo credit Afreximbank- RR
“Given that access to finance remains a key constraint to SME operations, availability of sustainable trade finance, especially for SMEs, will remain the key lubricant to propel the AfCFTA,” Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the Intra-African Trade Initiative at Afreximbank recently stressed. She reminded that “SMEs constitute the greatest proportion of the continent’s industrial fiber, accounting for about 80% of businesses and employing not less than 70% of the continent’s workforce.,” Indeed, Afreximbank considers factoring as a viable alternative financing instrument for supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) at a
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time when traditional commercial bank lending is tightening while trading is about to begin under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Against this backdrop, the Model Factoring Law, developed and promoted since 2016 by Afreximbank, has become more relevant than ever.
Increasing intra-African trade in the context of post-COVID-19 recovery Lack of access to trade finance has been one of the factors that have hampered trade, especially for small and
