<\/p>\n
The agreement falls under AfDB’s Trade Finance Transaction Guarantee Instrument and will support cross-border trade by providing guarantees on eligible trade finance transactions arranged through approved African banks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to AfDB’s 2025 Trade Finance Report, Africa’s unmet demand for trade finance ranged between $74 billion and $92 billion in 2024, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) facing the greatest challenges in securing funding.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Under the arrangement, AfDB will provide transaction-by-transaction guarantees covering up to 100% of the non-payment risk assumed by MCB on qualifying trade finance transactions originated by AfDB-approved African issuing banks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The facility is designed to strengthen trade flows both within Africa and between African countries and the rest of the world, particularly in markets where access to credit facilities remains limited.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AfDB Head of Trade Finance Lamin Drammeh said the agreement would help expand the Bank’s support for African businesses by leveraging the institution’s strong credit rating. “This is a strategic partnership. It will allow us to leverage our AAA-rated guarantee and provide Mauritius Commercial Bank with the confidence to maintain and expand its relationships with local African banks,” Drammeh said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Drammeh said the facility would have a direct impact on SMEs, which continue to face some of the highest rejection rates for trade finance applications despite being critical contributors to economic growth and employment. “The facility will ultimately support SMEs who are the backbone of African economies but face the highest rejection rates for trade finance,” Drammeh said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
MCB Chief Executive Officer Thierry Hebraud said the partnership would strengthen the bank’s ability to support trade activity across the continent. “We are pleased to join the African Development Bank’s Trade Finance Guarantee Programme as a Confirming Bank,” Hebraud said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“This collaboration underscores our shared ambition to foster trade and drive sustainable economic growth across Africa.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to Hebraud, the agreement will expand MCB’s capacity to provide trade finance solutions to both clients and banking partners while facilitating more secure and efficient cross-border trade.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“It further reinforces our Trade Finance strategy by expanding our capacity to provide trade finance solutions to clients and banking partners, thereby enabling smoother, more secure cross-border trade across the continent,” Hebraud said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–AfDB\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":42691,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-42690","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The African Development Bank (AfDB) has signed a trade finance agreement with The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) to reduce Africa's persistent trade finance gap and improve access to funding for businesses across the continent.","published_date":"","news_description":"The African Development Bank (AfDB) has signed a trade finance agreement with The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) to reduce Africa's persistent trade finance gap and improve access to funding for businesses across the continent.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42692,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42690\/revisions\/42692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}