$10 Million Trade Finance Facility: Being Capitalized by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to Nigeria’s Parallex Bank Limited (Parallex Bank)

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- The financing is deployed under Afreximbank’s Trade Facilitation Programme (AfTRAF) which is a component of the Bank’s policy to boost African banks to strengthen and complete prevailing trade finance layers.

The $10 million financing facility will be utilized by Parallex Bank to enable, through on lending, access to cross-border trade finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and to develop cords of recognition for enterprises operating in the agribusiness, export industry, health, education, and renewable energy sectors. The accounts will similarly subsidize other pan-African employment chances for Parallex Bank’s thriving SME component, as adequately as for arising saleable and corporate banking businesses.

“We are pleased to continue to expand the AfTRAF program across Africa. This financing facility provided to Parallex Bank comes in addition to other trade facilities already in use by our other partner banks in Nigeria and throughout the landmass to assist link the financing fissure established by the withdrawal of international correspondent banks”. Benedict Oramah – President and Chairman of the Board of Directors Afreximbank stated.

“This facility underscores the confidence that Afreximbank has in Parallex Bank. It helps us to materialize our strategy of building ecosystem partnerships to support critical sectors of Nigeria’s economy for growth and development. We will engage in product based collaborations to increase transaction mileage in specific and strategic segments, such as the creative industry, women-owned and managed business collaborations, and others. Parallex Bank remains committed to promoting business growth in Africa and contributing to that e development of the continent”. Olufemi Bakre – MD/CEO of Parallex Bank started.

In excursus to the $10 million trade finance facility, Afreximbank will give Parallex Bank with specialized services in capacity development and other training programs progressive towards establishing the relationship between the two institutions.

Parallex Bank Limited is a commercial bank permitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The Bank influences digital innovation, best-in-class talent, growing brand equity in the marketplace, and customer-centric and flexible products and services to deliver banking services to Retail, MSMEs, and Commercial and Corporate and Institutional Banking clients.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution directed to subsidize and improve intra-and extra-African trade. For thirty years, the Bank has been deploying innovative structures to transmit financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, more so by increasing financial growth in Africa.

A burly adherent of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Afreximbank has launched a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was approved by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement strategy to underpin the enactment of the AfCFTA.

Helping with the AfCFTA Secretariat and the AU, the Bank is setting up a $10 billion Adjustment Fund to assist nations in effectively contributing to the AfCFTA. At the edge of 2022, afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees strutted at about $28 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to $5.2 billion. The Bank expended more than $86 billion between 2016 and 2022.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent