Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
On Tuesday, September 22, 2020, some highly experienced subject matter experts and thought leaders in relevant industries will gather to discuss ways to boost regional trade.
The platform for this discussion is being provided by Ecobank Nigeria, a member of the pan African banking group, Ecobank.
The event, which will take place virtually, will provide an opportunity for exporters and importers within Africa to engage, creating a marketplace experience.
The first regional trade conference of the financial institution is themed Facilitating Regional Trade in the emerging AFCFTA era.
A statement from the lender said the conference will be moderated by Mr Tedd George, the founder and Chief Narrative Officer of Kleos Advisory, UK.
The special guest of honour for the event is the Executive Director/Chief Executive of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Mr Segun Awolowo.
According to the Head of Trade Finance at Ecobank Nigeria, Mr Sunday Abah, due to its unrivalled footprint across Africa, Ecobank is uniquely positioned to facilitate cross border trade within the region leveraging its comprehensive trade solutions and various payment methods available across its network within Africa.
“Ecobank’s unique intra-Africa trade solutions enable settlements of international transactions and mitigation of payment risk while providing regional solutions such as issuance of payment guarantees to exporters without the need for a letter of credit and its related costs to the importer. Ecobank works closely with clients in structuring transactions, settlements, financing and risk mitigation,” he noted.
“Our trade products and solutions are designed around two broad areas; trade finance and trade services. Trade finance enables our customers benefit from adequate and well mitigated credit facilitation in the area of import finance, export finance, bill discounting, trade loans, distributor finance, payables and receivables finance, structured trade and commodity finance amongst others while our trade services, offer our customers the advantage of speedy turn around and error free processing of their import letter of credits, import collections, avalised bills, Customs bonds, export collections as well as their local purchase orders and payment invoices, via our electronic trade platforms OMNI e-Trade and OMNI eFSC (electronic financial supply chain),” he said further.
Recall that the Ecobank Nigeria Africa Trade Conference 2020 was earlier slated for March but was postponed due to the lockdown restrictions following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
