Ghana Trade Finance
Trade finance for export transactions to Ghana remains very constrained, at present. However, companies that have a domestic presence in member country of Afreximbank (such as Ghana) may have access to trade finance, project finance, insurance, and other financial service products through Afreximbank.
Afreximbank’s financial products are often directed to intra-African trade transactions. In some cases, however, they apply to the importation of equipment into Africa that is needed for manufacturing industries or for the importation other key products.
Afreximbank’s Structured Trade Finance Scheme covers both exports and imports. It is designed to address the market and product diversification challenges that African countries face and to remove bottlenecks to trade.
The Scheme’s Dual Recourse Facility has products related to: Direct financing, Receivable Purchase Discount Programs, Forfaiting Facility, Invoice / Receivable Discounting Facility, Factoring and Receivables Management Facility, and a Joint Bill Discounting / Financing and Refinancing Facility.
• Under the Direct Financing Program, for example, Afreximbank can provide pre- and post-export financing directly to companies with a balance sheet size of at least $2 million and an annual trade turnover of at least $10 million. It can provide pre- and post-export financing (up to 75% and 80% of the underlying sales contract for pre-export and post-export transactions respectively); Import Financing (Letter of Credit Issuance) Facility (up to 70% of the underlying sales contract); and Export Credit Guarantee (up to 100%).
• Another example, the Forfaiting Facility, supports the purchase of essential imports, such as oil, food, and pharmaceuticals, on a short-term basis. Over the medium-term, it can support export generative or other essential items such as telecom equipment. Afreximbank also uses it to assist African exporters in their shipment of capital and other goods to new markets. Using the Facility, the Bank assumes the payment and country risks of the import transactions enabling the importers to obtain fixed rate credits in many cases.
The Afreximbank Trade Facilitation Programme (AFTRAF) helps to support critical imports into Africa, boosts intra-African trade, and facilitates the purchase of equipment for the production of export goods. It provides trade confirmation services, trade confirmation guarantees, and irrevocable reimbursement undertakings.
Further information about Afreximbank’s offerings can be found here.
53 out of 55 African countries are Member States of the Afreximbank. They include: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Central Africa Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, and Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Please contact Commercial Service Ghana at Office.Accra@trade.gov for more information on all aspects of doing business in Ghana. To see Commercial Ghana’s other market intelligence reports, please see our market intelligence section.