By Obinna Uballa
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will hold the 25th edition of its flagship Trade Finance Seminar (ATFS2025) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from November 4 to 6, as the continent grapples with an annual trade finance gap of up to $100 billion.
A one-day Factoring Workshop will follow on November 7, a statement from the bank said on Wednesday.
The event will gather African and international trade finance experts, banking executives, corporates and regulators to discuss innovative financing structures, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent more than 90% of Africa’s businesses but remain underserved by traditional banks.
“Structured trade finance is Africa’s ticket to turning unbankable deals into viable trade,” said Gwen Mwaba, Afreximbank’s Managing Director of Trade Finance & Correspondent Banking. She noted that with global lenders retreating and regulations tightening, Africa must build stronger capacity to finance trade locally.
Key sessions at ATFS2025 will feature Marc Auboin of the World Trade Organization on unlocking Africa’s trade finance potential, Sylvia Macri of S&P Global Commodity Insights on Africa’s role in global energy finance, and a workshop on reserve-based lending led by Petrovision Energy Services and Afreximbank.
The accompanying Factoring Workshop will highlight factoring as a key tool to expand access to credit for SMEs. Now in its 25th year, Afreximbank’s Trade Finance Seminar has trained thousands of professionals and is considered Africa’s leading platform for knowledge-sharing on structured trade finance.
