Structured trade finance offers Africa a vital pathway to boosting intra-African trade and increasing the continent’s global exports stated Amr Kamel, executive vice-president, Business Development and Corporate Banking, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)
Kamel and Faouzia Zaaboul, director of the Treasury and External Finance Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Morocco, led the opening of the Afreximbank Structured Trade Finance Seminar on 7 November 2018 in Casablanca, Morocco.
Addressing the opening of the Fundamentals of Structured Trade Finance Seminar and Workshops, Kamel expressed regret that Africa still suffered from a deficit of expertise in structured finance even though it was widely acknowledged as a highly effective trade financing tool.
He said that Afreximbank remained committed to equipping African financiers with the knowledge required to structure bankable trade and trade-related project finance transactions.
“This 18th Structured Trade Finance Seminar progresses Afreximbank’s goal of strengthening the capacity of its partners and clients in understanding trade and trade-related project financing issues as they affect Africa and is driven by the widening trade financing gap and the challenge of increasing the continent’s share of global trade,” Kamel added.
He further added that Africa had much to learn from the economic transformation of Morocco, noting that, “Many years of modernising and expanding its infrastructure has successfully transformed Morocco into a commercial crossroads between Africa and the West.”
In her address on behalf of the government of Morocco, Zaaboul thanked Afreximbank for having chosen Morocco to host the seminar which represents a platform for learning and exchange on an important theme relating to structured trade finance
Zaaboul stressed the role that intra-African trade can play in structuring development, especially as a vector of regional integration.
The seminar was attended by more than 200 participants and experts from across the globe, including executives of banks, law firms and other financial institutions, senior government officials and financial regulators as well as corporates.
The seminar saw an active engagement in the promotion and financing of African trade and trade-related projects.
