The services other Services of the bank that were discussed were:

Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS)
Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), observing that the ground-breaking platform will save Africa more than US$5 billion annually in payment transaction costs, while it plays an increasingly significant role in accelerating the continent’s transactions underpinning the operationalisation of the AfCFTA.

PAPSS provides the state-of-the-art financial market infrastructure connecting African markets to each other thereby enabling instant cross-border payments in respective local African currencies for cross-border trade. Afreximbank as the main Settlement Agent for PAPSS, provides settlement guarantees on the payment system and overdraft facilities to all settlement agents, in partnership with Africa’s participating Central Banks. PAPSS will effectively eliminate Africa’s financial borders, formalise and integrate Africa’s payment systems and play a major role in facilitating and accelerating the huge AfCFTA-induced growth curve in intra-African trade.”

PAPSS provides the solution to the disconnected and fragmented nature of payment and settlement systems that have long impeded intra-African trade. Prior to PAPSS, over 80 per cent of African cross-border payment transactions originating from African banks had to be routed offshore for clearing and settlement using international banking relationships. That posed multiple challenges, ranging from payment delays to operational inefficiencies and compliance concerns for the disparate regional payment systems.

PAPSS, which has been successfully piloted in the six countries of the West African Monetary Zone, delivers multiple advantages and efficiencies to intra-African trade payments, including:

• Reducing the cost, duration and time variability of cross-border payments across Africa;
• Decreasing the liquidity requirements of commercial banks for cross-border payments; and
• Strengthening oversight of cross-border payment systems by central banks.

PAPSS is also set to deliver harmonisation across the continent through its comprehensive legal, regulatory and operational framework comprising standardised rules, formats and governance arrangements, harmonised Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money Laundering procedures, payment confirmation and settlement finality. A precondition for participation in PAPSS is compliance with its set rules and standards.

Trade & Project Financing
Afreximbank offers a range of financing programmes, solutions and advisory services to support the expansion, diversification, promotion and development of intra- and extra-African trade and trade development projects.

Afreximbank’s trade and project financing initiatives positively impacts trade and economic development across the African continent through activities centered on the main strategic pillars of its fifth Strategic plan:

• Intra-African Trade, which comprises promotion of intra-African trade in manufactures and facilitation of effective participation of African entities in the continent’s extractive industries;
• Industrialisation and Export Development, combines Credit, Risk Bearing, Twinning and Market Access to support projects geared towards promoting non-commodity export production, especially export manufacturing and services, in line with the objectives of the Bank’s Industrialisation and Export Development Strategy. It also includes Advisory Services and Capacity Building towards establishing the appropriate enabling environment for industrialisation and export development. 
• Trade-Enabling Infrastructure, which supports intra-African trade and industrialisation in Africa; and
• Trade Finance Leadership, which encompasses support to member countries adversely affected by global shocks.

Export Development
Under its 5th strategic plan (2017-2021), the Bank has identified Industrialisation and Export Development (I&ED) as one of the pillars that would help to deliver on its mandate. The Export Development department therefore supports the I&ED pillar through the following mechanisms:

1. Facilitating and financing Africa’s manufactured exports in particular for agro-processing and light manufacturing sectors;
2. Developing and establishing Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones across the continent;
3. Addressing Africa’s infrastructure constraints debilitating industrialization and export development;
4. Facilitating and enabling market access of Africa’s manufactured exports; and
5. Supporting export of services (medical services, tourism, etc.).

The Export Development department combines Credit, Risk Bearing, Twinning, Market Access to support projects geared towards promoting non-commodity export production, especially export manufacturing and services in-line with the objectives of the IEDS. It also provides Advisory Services and Capacity Building towards establishing the appropriate enabling environment for industrialization and export development on the continent.

We share with you all our gallery of photos of our extraordinary week.