Afreximbank, FCI to promote factoring to East African SMEs

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with FCI, will hold a two-day conference in Nairobi to promote the use of factoring to enhance access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa. The Regional Conference on Factoring and Receivables Finance is scheduled to take place on 27 and 28 February and is expected to attract about 120 senior executives from factoring companies, banks and non-bank financial institutions, government agencies, consulting firms and IT providers. They will be joined by regulators, lawyers and insurers for the sharing of best practices in regulatory and legal regimes, innovation and credit insurance services that can facilitate the growth of factoring in support of SMEs.

According to information from Afreximbank and FCI, factoring can provide more financing to SMEs than traditional lending channels if the knowledge and capability are developed and shared.

The Conference is aimed at creating awareness, building capacity and providing opportunities for networking in the factoring industry. It will feature presentations, panel discussions and success stories and will allow attendees to discuss the current state and challenges of the factoring industry. Discussions will also cover products and market development.

“Promoting Intra-African Trade and facilitating Industrialisation and Export Development are key pillars of Afreximbank’s current strategy. We believe that factoring will support their implementation capacity in the context of the untapped opportunities. Factoring provides a solution to address the challenge of access to financing for African SMEs. Afreximbank will continue to play a leading role in facilitating the growth of factoring in Africa especially in creating awareness and building requisite capacity.”

Kanayo Awani, Managing Director, Intra-African Trade Initiative, Afreximbank. “It is generally recognised that Africa presents some of the most exciting global opportunities for economic development and expansion. Factoring is capable of providing support for future success in both funding SMEs and inter-African trade. FCI’s African Chapter is in place to help guide this expansion and develop the necessary skills in market to drive growth at the regional level.”