Afreximbank’s flagship ‘Africa Trade Gateway’ launched to facilitate business
The Africa Trade Gateway (ATG) — a suite of five digital platforms designed as a single window — was officially launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Accra this week.
The ATG is designed to enable the Afreximbank better deliver on its mandate by providing critical services to support and promote African trade and the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). Launched by Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President, the gateway digital ecosystem comprises the MANSA due diligence platform, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the TRADAR Club, the Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX) and ATG Connect.
Awani said that Afreximbank’s digital evolution was part of its deliberate strategic response to address Africa’s key challenges to accelerate the pace of development and foster economic prosperity for Africans using and applying digital technologies and business models. “Each one of our digital interventions is designed to address clearly identified challenges and barriers for those seeking to engage in African trade and investment.”
The Afreximbank’s chief described ATG as the gateway into a definitive digital ecosystem made for Africa’s trade, supported by the bank and the AfCFTA in collaboration with their partners, to answer the needs of businesses, governments, and stakeholders by enabling trade, commerce, and investment. With the ATG, customers could complete all their transactions within one window, Awani explained. MANSA, Africa’s due diligence platform, provides a single source of primary data required for the conduct of customer due diligence on African entities, financial institutions, corporates, and SMEs.
PAPSS was established to enable efficient payment for intra-African trade in national currencies, promoting intra-African trade, minimizing risk, and contributing to financial integration across Africa. TRADAR Club is member-driven network aimed at empowering international businesses and executives to transform trade and investments in Africa, while ATEX is a B2B and B2G e-commerce platform and ATG Connect serves to connect business service providers across Africa.
