African trade stands on the cusp of a revolution. As a result of bank-led trade initiatives, regulatory standardisation, new technologies, and fintech partnerships, African trade is now becoming a focus for many global corporates. And for domestic entities, intra-African trade is opening up a host of growth opportunities. The combination of digitisation and Africa’s market […]
Africa’s foreign exchange (FX) market may be fragmented, but it is also unencumbered by legacy trading infrastructure. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the continent has become a hive of fintech activity and digital FX innovation. Tim Hutchinson, Head of Digital for Financial Markets, Standard Bank, explains the latest developments in this space and […]
There is still interest from multinational companies to expand into Africa due to the higher growth rates on offer than elsewhere in the world, but expectations around more sophisticated solutions are much higher than they were in the past.
Standard Bank Group, Africa’s leading bank by assets, collected 22 awards in the EMEA Finance’s Treasury Services Awards and Global Finance’s World’s Best Bank Awards, both for 2015. The awards were presented at the Sibos conference in Singapore.
Greater levels of trade will fuel Africa’s growth but companies need to be better positioned to seize the opportunities by improving their working capital management capabilities and access to finance to fund these opportunities, says Standard Bank.
According to the African Development Bank’s recent report on trade finance in Africa, the conservative estimate for the value of unmet demand for bank-intermediated trade finance is between US$110 billion and US $120 billion, which is significantly higher than earlier estimated figures of US$25 billion.
