Afreximbank secures $529m guarantee and facility

To boost African trade infrastructure

Afreximbank has taken significant steps to strengthen the infrastructure and financial architecture supporting African trade, issuing a US$29 million guarantee and signing a US$500 million credit facility while outlining a broader vision for deeper continental and diaspora economic integration.

The Bank has provided a US$29 million guarantee to BSMART Technology Ltd to support the implementation and scaling of the East African Community (EAC) Customs Bond. This technology-enabled regional customs guarantee solution is designed to facilitate the smoother movement of goods across East African countries.

The facility is expected to bolster the financial capacity underpinning the EAC Customs Bond, expand its adoption, and contribute to a more seamless, digital and integrated customs environment across the region.

In parallel, Afreximbank has signed a US$500 million Global Credit facility with the Africa Trading and Distribution Company (ATDC). Under the arrangement, the Bank will provide trade-finance capacity to scale eligible trading and distribution transactions across Africa.

The facility covers the purchase and aggregation of African goods as well as related logistics, warehousing and distribution, with repayment linked to proceeds from financed sales. The support is intended to enhance the movement and distribution of African commodities and products in both continental and global markets.

These interventions form part of a wider effort to convert the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) into tangible growth for African businesses.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice-President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development, noted that while intra-African trade reached US$213.8 billion in 2025, it still accounted for only 14.6 percent of Africa’s total trade.

Expanding this share, she emphasised, requires policies that ease cross-border commerce, capital that builds productive industries, and infrastructure that connects producers to markets.

Afreximbank is addressing these needs across the value chain by financing productive capacity and industrial zones, supporting African engineering firms, and facilitating trade through platforms including PAPSS, the Africa Trade Gateway, the African Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme and the Intra-African Trade Fair. Collectively, these initiatives aim to help African enterprises scale regionally and compete more effectively on the global stage.

Awani also set out the Bank’s vision for a more connected “Global Africa” during the Future Africa Forum 2026 in New York. She described the relationship between the continent and its global diaspora as an economic opportunity that remains under-realised.

With an estimated 200 million people of African descent living worldwide and Africa receiving US$124 billion in remittances in 2025, the potential is substantial. Afreximbank has already approved more than US$1 billion in financing for diaspora-related projects spanning infrastructure, hospitality, climate and financial services.

Through the Global Africa Gateway, launched in 2024, the Bank is developing practical pathways to link diaspora capital and expertise with opportunities across Africa and the Caribbean. These include research, professional and internship programmes, investment mobilisation and financing platforms designed to de-risk projects and support cross-border enterprise.

The efforts complement Afreximbank’s wider work on industrial parks, African trade champions, SME development and its Caribbean Initiative, under which the regional financing envelope has grown to US$5 billion.

The overarching objective, Awani indicated, is to build a more integrated Global African economic ecosystem in which people, capital, talent and ideas move more freely across borders and contribute to shared prosperity.