Afreximbank introduces single window for digital services
…launches Africa Trade Gateway
By Bolaji Adebiyi in Accra, Ghana
As part of its efforts to deliver on its mandate of providing critical services to support and promote African trade and the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, the African Export-Import Bank in collaboration with the AfCFTA has launched the Africa Trade Gateway.
The ATG, which was rolled out on Tuesday in Accra, Ghana on the sidelines of the Bank’s 30th Annual Meetings, is a suite of five digital platforms that have been designed as a single window to enable the Bank to perform its development finance mandate.
Kanayo Awani, the Bank’s Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade Bank, who launched the product, said the Pan-African financial institution’s digital evolution was part of its deliberate strategic response to address Africa’s key challenges to accelerate the pace of development and foster economic prosperity for Africans using and applying digital technologies and business models.
“Each one of our digital interventions is designed to address clearly identified challenges and barriers for those seeking to engage in African trade and investment,” she said.
Awani explained that each intervention had been successfully transformed from concept to reality, and commended the hard work of her colleagues and the Bank’s partners in achieving the milestones.
She described ATG as the gateway into a definitive digital ecosystem made for Africa’s trade, supported by Afreximbank and the AfCFTA in collaboration with their partners, to answer the needs of businesses, governments, and stakeholders by enabling trade, commerce, and investment.
With the ATG, she explained, customers could complete all their transactions within one window.
The product launch was witnessed by Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of Bank of Ghana, and Mrs. Emily Mburu-Ndoria, Director of the Directorate of Trade in Services, Investment, IPR and Digital Trade, AfCFTA, who represented Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General, AfCFTA.
The gateway digital ecosystem comprises the MANSA (due diligence platform), the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the TRADAR Club, the Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX), and ATG Connect.
MANSA, Africa’s due diligence platform, provides a single source of primary data required for the conduct of customer due diligence on African entities, financial institutions, corporates, and SMEs. It also provides a complementary collection of information on investment in Africa, country profiles, and trade products/services of African countries.
The PAPSS was established to enable efficient payment for intra-African trade in national currencies, promoting intra-African trade, minimising risk, and contributing to financial integration across Africa.
It would be recalled that in July 2019, African Union Heads of State at a meeting in Niamey, adopted PAPSS as the payment and settlement system to support the implementation of the AfCFTA. It currently operates out of Cairo.
TRADAR Club is a member-driven network aimed at empowering international businesses and executives to transform trade and investments in Africa through trusted trade intelligence and advisory services through innovative digital tools and networking opportunities, helping members to discover new markets; grow their business; save time; access dedicated expert support; post and respond to new business opportunities; network; meet business/trading partners, etc. Membership is open to global industry leaders, African and foreign businesses, intergovernmental organisations, policymakers and others committed to unlocking growth and development in Africa.
ATEX is a B2B and B2G e-commerce platform launched at the 54th Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development in Dakar in May 2022, to help small and medium-scale, and large African businesses to tap into new markets in Africa and to facilitate the optimisation of their supply chains. It enables procurement in bulk for basic commodities to ensure access to suppliers in a transparent manner.
ATG Connect serves to connect business service providers across Africa. It provides freight and logistics connectivity solutions that allow for frictionless connecting and matching of freight/ logistics requests with freight and logistics providers listed on the platform. Customers can get quotes for the pickup and delivery of goods to and from any location in Africa at a very competitive price.
The launch ceremony included presentations on the services available under the various digital platforms and a panel discussion by the heads of the platforms during which they discussed the services they offered in support of trade across Africa and the implementation of the AfCFTA.
The 30th Afreximbank Annual Meetings ended on Wednesday with its AGM.
