Banks and other financial institutions involved in financing
trade in Africa will gather in Mauritius from 21 to 24 November for a seminar
organized by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to enhance Africa’s
capacity to take advantage of opportunities offered by structured trade finance
to boost trade in the face of challenging global economic environment of
contracting demand and creeping protectionism.
According to
information released by the Bank, Rameswurlall Basant Roi, Governor of the
Central Bank of Mauritius, will chair the opening ceremony. He will be joined
by Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing, Chairman of State Bank of Bank Mauritius (SBM),
Caroline Abel, Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles, and Kutoane Kutoane,
Chief Executive Officer of the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South
Africa.
The Afreximbank
2016 Annual Structured Trade Finance Seminar will expose the more that 100
trade finance practitioners expected to attend to the fundamentals of
structured trade finance.
Afreximbank
President Dr. Benedict Oramah said in Cairo today that the organization of the seminar
was motivated by the Bank’s goal of “strengthening the capacity of its partners
and clients in understanding trade and trade related project financing issues
as they affect Africa,” particularly given the widening trade
financing gap and the challenge of increasing the continent’s share of global
trade.
The President added that the seminar
would provide “a platform for African bankers and other trade finance
practitioners to meet and network, thereby making a major contribution in
boosting African trade,” pointing out that many participants had gone on to
successfully meet client trade finance needs by tapping into such contacts to
facilitate cross-border business transactions.
Speakers in this
year’s seminar and workshops will include leading experts from some of the
world’s top financial institutions, academic institutions and firms, as well as
representatives from Afreximbank, the Central Bank of Mauritius, SBM, the
Central Bank of Seychelles, Standard Chartered Bank, Mauritius Banker’s Association
and the Loans Market Association.
Senior executives
representing 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. According to Afreximbank, they will be joined by middle to senior
level international professionals from Africa and beyond.
The four-day
training will start with the Structured Trade Finance Seminar on 21 and 22
November, followed by a workshop on agency and syndications, focusing on the
role of the Loan Market Association, on 23 November. 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 2016 Trade
Finance Seminar and Workshops, the 16th in the annual series, 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.
Obi Emekekwue
Afreximbank External Communications
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please restrict your comment to the subject matter.