ECOBANK Nigeria, a member of the Pan African Banking Group has concluded plans to host its first Regional Trade Conference.
The virtual forum with the theme “Facilitating Regional Trade in the emerging AFCFTA era” is slated for the 22nd of September.
A statement by Ecobank Nigeria on Monday in Lagos said that the conference, which will feature presentations and panel discussions by highly experienced subject matter experts and thought leaders in relevant industries, would provide an opportunity for exporters and importers within Africa to engage, creating a marketplace experience.
It noted that the Ecobank Nigeria ‘Africa Trade Conference 2020’ earlier slated for March was postponed due to the lockdown restrictions, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Sunday Abah, Head, Trade Finance, Ecobank Nigeria, who announced the new date and movement of the conference to an online platform in line with current realities, stated that 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 said.
“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.
The Ecobank Regional Trade Conference, which will be moderated by Mr. Tedd George, the Founder and Chief Narrative Officer of Kleos Advisory, UK, has Mr. Segun Awolowo, Executive Director/ Chief Executive, Nigeria Export Promotion Council as its Special Guest of Honour and that notable speakers and facilitators across the globe are also expected at the event.