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Africa’s trade and finance experts will gather in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, next month for the 25th edition of the African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) flagship Trade Finance Seminar (ATFS2025), where efforts to close the continent’s estimated US$100 billion annual trade finance gap will take centre stage.
Scheduled to run from 4 to 6 November 2025, the three-day forum will bring together leading African and international trade finance specialists, banking professionals, corporate leaders, and regulators to discuss innovative financing tools aimed at unlocking new business opportunities.
A one-day Factoring Workshop will follow on 7 November 2025.
Read more: Afreximbank extends $100 million trade credit to NBS Bank Malawi
According to Afreximbank, this year’s discussions will focus heavily on structured trade finance as a vehicle to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access affordable credit.
The bank stated that SMEs accounted for over 90 percent of Africa’s businesses, yet remain largely underserved by conventional financial institutions.
Afreximbank’s Managing Director of Trade Finance & Correspondent Banking, Gwen Mwaba, said in a statement issued from Cairo, Egypt that structured trade finance offered practical solutions to Africa’s credit challenges.
“Structured trade finance is Africa’s ticket to turning unbankable deals into viable trade,” she said. “This seminar equips financial leaders with the tools to unlock growth at scale, especially in challenging conditions.”
Mwaba added that with global lenders tightening regulations and reducing exposure to emerging markets, Africa must strengthen its own trade finance ecosystem.
“Hosting this training in Africa allows hundreds of African professionals to build critical expertise at a fraction of the cost of similar programmes in global financial centres such as London, Singapore, or New York,” she said.
The seminar programme will feature keynote addresses, interactive workshops, and high-level panel discussions.
Among the highlights are sessions on unlocking Africa’s trade finance potential, expanding supply while reducing costs presented by Marc Auboin of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Africa’s emerging role in global energy finance presented by Sylvia Macri of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
There will also be a workshop on understanding reserve-based lending led by Dr. Lekan Aluko of Petrovision Energy Services and Peter Olowononi of Afreximbank.
Other sessions will cover syndications and agency, key finance documentation, and Africa’s lending landscape, along with discussions on eliminating the trade finance gap and examining the role of development banks in shaping the new global trade finance order.
The annual ATFS series, launched in 1999, remains a key capacity-building platform that strengthens Africa’s financial institutions and promotes best practices in trade finance across the continent.
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