Afreximbank, AGF Back SMEs in Africa with $30m

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has signed an agreement with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) for a 30 million dollar re-guarantee facility to support African Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
The Director, Trade Finance of Afreximbank, Mr Gwen Mwaba, in a statement on Thursday said the facility would help the SMEs in the trade value chain to access funds for their activities.
The agreement provides for the facility to be used to support the financing needs of African SMEs.
This is aimed at enhancing their access to long term financing, thereby acting as a catalyst to enable them to grow, create more jobs, sustain the existing labour force and develop intra-African and extra-African trade.
According to Mwaba, the re-guarantee facility is aimed at providing comfort to financial institutions in lending to SMEs, which tend to be regarded as a risky segment.
He said that it would enable the financial institutions to transform their short term deposits into long term financing to SMEs.
He said that it would also support Afreximbank’s SME support initiative and AGF strategic plan.
“The facility is expected to support positive social-economic changes among the more than 6,000 SMEs that are expected to gain access to guaranteed loans from African local banks.
“It will thereby contribute to trade development, economic growth and poverty reduction in the continent,” Mwaba said.
President of Afreximbank, Benedict Oramah, said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa have long faced real difficulties accessing external finance for their business activities, which has impeded their growth and prevented them from pursuing commercial opportunities.
Oramah stated: “SMEs in Africa have long faced real difficulties accessing external finance for their business activities and this has impeded their growth and prevented them pursuing commercial opportunities. Afreximbank sees factoring as a solution to bridge the funding gap facing SMEs, and the agreement will support our strategy to grow Intra-African trade and facilitate greater SME contribution to regional and global supply chains.”
He said the bank was championing the development of factoring in Africa by focusing on the provision of credit lines to factors, capacity-building workshops, policy and regulatory inputs, advisory services and technical assistance to promote best practices.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has signed an agreement with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) for a 30 million dollar re-guarantee facility to support African Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
The Director, Trade Finance of Afreximbank, Mr Gwen Mwaba, in a statement on Thursday said the facility would help the SMEs in the trade value chain to access funds for their activities.
The agreement provides for the facility to be used to support the financing needs of African SMEs.
This is aimed at enhancing their access to long term financing, thereby acting as a catalyst to enable them to grow, create more jobs, sustain the existing labour force and develop intra-African and extra-African trade.
According to Mwaba, the re-guarantee facility is aimed at providing comfort to financial institutions in lending to SMEs, which tend to be regarded as a risky segment.
He said that it would enable the financial institutions to transform their short term deposits into long term financing to SMEs.
He said that it would also support Afreximbank’s SME support initiative and AGF strategic plan.
“The facility is expected to support positive social-economic changes among the more than 6,000 SMEs that are expected to gain access to guaranteed loans from African local banks.
“It will thereby contribute to trade development, economic growth and poverty reduction in the continent,” Mwaba said.
President of Afreximbank, Benedict Oramah, said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa have long faced real difficulties accessing external finance for their business activities, which has impeded their growth and prevented them from pursuing commercial opportunities.
Oramah stated: “SMEs in Africa have long faced real difficulties accessing external finance for their business activities and this has impeded their growth and prevented them pursuing commercial opportunities. Afreximbank sees factoring as a solution to bridge the funding gap facing SMEs, and the agreement will support our strategy to grow Intra-African trade and facilitate greater SME contribution to regional and global supply chains.”
He said the bank was championing the development of factoring in Africa by focusing on the provision of credit lines to factors, capacity-building workshops, policy and regulatory inputs, advisory services and technical assistance to promote best practices.