African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Pan-African multilateral EXIM Bank, will now offer Approved Payables Finance across Africa, thanks to an innovative new partnership with Demica, one of the world’s largest working capital fintechs.
Afreximbank and Demica will implement together a platform for Approved Payables Finance, enabling the Bank to secure the supply chains and support the working capital needs of corporates, including SMEs throughout Africa. This aligns with Afeximbank’s strategy to stimulate a consistent expansion and diversification of African trade and increase Africa’s share of global trade.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations across Africa had rapidly changing financial requirements. Afreximbank was therefore looking for a partner to help it meet both current and evolving customer needs. The Demica platform’s automated processes along with its intuitive and simple dashboards, as well as continued investment in new features, aligned well to support this objective.
Demica’s Chief Commercial Officer, Maurice Benisty, commented: “Demica has a strong track record of delivering white-labelled working capital solutions to financial institutions around the globe. This appointment is Demica’s first in the pan-African market. We are excited to be supporting Afreximbank’s objective to expand trade in and with Africa.”
Gwen Mwaba, Director & Global Head Trade Finance, Afreximbank stated, “Afreximbank will introduce Approved Payables Finance across Africa in an innovative partnership with Demica and leading African financial institutions. The product, which will deploy world class technology and a collaborative delivery model, aligns with the Bank’s vision of Transforming Africa’s Trade, and will contribute to achievement of the Bank’s strategic objective of reducing the trade finance gap in Africa, especially for the SME segment.”
Afreximbank and Demica are both members of FCI, formerly known as Factor Chains International, the global representative body for open account trade financing. Demica’s technology underpins the FCIreverse payables finance platform as well and the common technology will facilitate collaboration between Afreximbank, Demica, and FCI in promoting open account payables and receivables financing in Africa.
About Afreximbank
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution with the mandate of financing and promoting intra-and extra-African trade. Afreximbank was established in October 1993 and owned by African governments, the African Development Bank and other African multilateral financial institutions as well as African and non-African public and private investors. The Bank was established under two constitutive documents, an Agreement signed by member states, which confers on the Bank the status of an international organization, and a Charter signed by all Shareholders, which governs its corporate structure and operations. Afreximbank deploys innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that are supporting the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby sustaining economic expansion in Africa. At the end of 2019, the Bank’s total assets and guarantees stood at USD$15.5 billion and its shareholders funds amounted to US$2.8 billion. Voted “African Bank of the Year” in 2019, the Bank disbursed more than US$38billion between 2016 and 2020. Afreximbank has ratings assigned by GCR (international scale) (A-), Moody’s (Baa1) and Fitch (BBB-). The Bank is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.
About Demica
Demica is a leading Fintech providing working capital solutions to large corporates and banks through a broad range of supply chain finance solutions. The company focuses on forming long-term partnerships with multinational clients and banks globally, enabling the provision of sustainable long-term financing programmes. Today Demica has over US$18.4bn of funded assets outstanding on its platform, provided by a diverse range of banks and institutional investors.