Afreximbank’s progress in its five-year strategy is evident through its achievements

In November 2023 Afreximbank appointed Haytham ElMaayergi as its Executive Vice President for the Global Trade Bank (GLTB). With the Bank’s annual meetings having been held in the Bahamas in June, it’s an opportune moment to discuss ElMaayergi’s vision for his new role and to receive an update on the Bank’s ambitious five-year strategy plan, “Impact 2026: Extending the Frontiers”.

Key focuses as executive vice president of the GLTB 

When asked what he is most looking forward to achieving in his new role as executive vice president of the Global Trade Bank, six main areas of focus were highlighted. ElMaayergi aims to strengthen Afreximbank’s role as a “bank of banks”, positioning it as a supermarket for African banks. Developing new rating methodologies tailored to Africa’s unique identity will speed up approval processes and financing deployment. He plans to establish an African risk trading desk to improve risk exchange liquidity in the secondary market. Converting part of Africa’s trade transactions and finance to digital will enhance efficiency, reduce risks, and foster global trade growth. Expanding Afreximbank’s non-regional footprint by capturing key corridors, particularly focusing on South-South exchanges, is another priority. 

Lastly, he intends to revamp Afreximbank’s Advisory and Capital Markets to become a key business generator, adding investment bank products to better support African trade finance operators. This will help them manage risks, navigate regulatory challenges, expand into new markets, develop innovative products, improve efficiency, build capacity, and enhance client relationships.

Highlights of the five-year strategic plan

At the midpoint of Afreximbank’s five-year strategy, ElMaayergi shared some key achievements and highlights in an exclusive interview. He began by explaining how the Bank has been driving industrialisation and export development through project and asset-backed financing, which has enabled cost-effective and timely debt-raising to benefit Africa’s industrial growth. He mentioned the creation of the Project Preparation Unit, which aids public and private entities in member countries to prepare projects that attract equity and debt finance. “So far, we’ve developed a pipeline of about $2bn worth of projects ready for execution,” he noted proudly.

ElMaayergi highlighted several flagship initiatives, including the Afreximbank Guarantee Programme (AFGAP). “AFGAP is designed to offer credit enhancement solutions and de-risk African transactions for non-African investors and financiers,” he explained. Another key initiative is the African Export-Import Bank Payment Digital Solution (AfPay), which promotes financial inclusion and economic growth by providing secure and convenient cross-border payment services. He also mentioned the Africa Trade Facilitation Program (AFTRAF), which supports critical imports, boosts intra-African trade, and enhances economic growth by facilitating compliance with international banking regulations.

Discussing Afreximbank’s push towards digital solutions, ElMaayergi emphasised the development of the Africa Trade Gateway (ATG). “With ATG, we offer a comprehensive suite of digital solutions to support Africa’s financial institutions and their corporate customers,” he said. This includes enabling online trade, providing access to finance, insurance, logistics services, and secure transactions via the Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX). “Through ATEX, businesses can receive comprehensive due diligence, financing requests, and advisory support for new market entries,” he added. Additionally, the Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) facilitates instant local currency transactions, ensuring end-of-day net settlement to reduce liquidity needs.

The strategic partnerships with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) were also brought up. “We are collaborating closely with the AfCFTA Secretariat to promote trade facilitation, capacity building, and policy reforms,” he stated. These efforts aim to enhance trade infrastructure, logistics, and connectivity across Africa, creating an enabling environment for trade and investment.

ElMaayergi also emphasised Afreximbank’s mission to strengthen trade finance leadership in Africa. “Our operations in 52 countries allow us to provide the right trade finance solutions to the right trading parties,” he said. “We are committed to ensuring African players benefit from the transfer of technology and know-how from well-established international partners.” This, he concluded, significantly contributes to fostering Africa’s trade and solidifying Afreximbank’s leadership on the continent.

Identified challenges and solutions

ElMaayergi also reflected on some of the challenges that have been encountered so far, with two standing out – the ongoing lack of information exchange in the African markets to the detriment of trade’s efficiency and the accustomedness to physical handling of trading transactions.

The Bank quickly developed solutions to these problems by developing various platforms and initiatives such as advisory business lines and sharing case studies with African banks to allow them to have a better understanding of the market. 

In addition, the MANSA Due Diligence Know Your Customer platform serves as a repository to address the perceived risks of doing business in Africa and with Africans, while the Bank’s TRADAR Club acts as a prestigious member-driven network which delivers innovative digital tools and networking opportunities and helps its members to discover new markets, grow their businesses, save time, access dedicated expert support, post and respond to new business opportunities and more. 

These strategies work cohesively to combat the challenges presented while executing the Bank’s five-year plan.

Market opportunities for growth

A plethora of opportunities have been identified within the continent. ElMaayergi draws attention to the need for African exports to be upgraded from being mainly raw or unprocessed commodities to added-value products; infrastructure for roads; ports and electricity connectivity; investment in capacity building; and qualifying the next generation to advance the continent’s performance; preparing for the next level of industrialisation and upgrading the continent’s value chain; connectivity between countries and the opportunity for PAPSS African countries to operate in their own local currencies. 

Furthermore, towards achieving a higher consolidation of the South-South corridor positioning, ElMaayergi highlighted the close collaboration with the countries of the BRICS bloc and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and with the Arab Africa Trade Bridge (AATB), a $1.5bn multi-donor, inter-regional program to address the issues of food insecurity in the Arab and African regions amidst the ongoing global food security crisis. 

Partners on the programme include the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), Islamic Development Bank, The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) amongst others.

These initiatives aid in the fulfilment of import needs, encourage the flow of investment into the continent and promote the opportunities that Africa presents to global markets.

Diversity and its impact

In terms of diversity, Afreximbank has always strived to represent and cater to all African countries. The Bank not only has diversity with regards to gender and nationality, but also with regards to the backgrounds of its staff.

ElMaayergi believes that the strength of the Bank comes from the richness of its 30 represented African nationalities, coverage of 52 African countries and 15 Caribbean countries and the sourcing of its employee base from around the world. He gave himself as an example, having worked in American, British, French, and Arab Financial institutions prior to joining Afreximbank.

ElMaayergi went on to say that it is this kind of diversity that fosters creativity, innovation and even opinion divergence which creates room for continuous learning, experience sharing and improvement. 

Furthermore, Afreximbank also offers an environment in which all employees get continuous exposure to higher management, governments and government-owned entities and deal with impressive levels of complexity that one would not have exposure to at a regular commercial bank. This results in these employees having a diversity of hard and soft skills and experiences, emphasising the Bank as a market leader in every aspect.

Personal goals for 2024

Reflecting on his personal goals for the year, ElMaayergi shared four objectives he has set for himself as the Bank’s new executive vice president of Global Trade Bank. He is passionate about strengthening the corridor in African and global trade (in Africa’s favour), supporting the continent on advisory and capital markets, making an impact on risk pricing for African trade, and pulling together one comprehensive digital proposition for Africa.

ElMaayergi looks forward to continuing to support debt and equity funding through the Bank’s advisory services which has successfully raised $1.7bn in debt and $1.1bn in equity for its clients who comprise entities involved in the financial services, agro-processing, industrial and export manufacturing value chain. ElMaayergi is currently revamping its Advisory and Capital Markets (ACMA) department to become the investment banking arm of Afreximbank – the first fully-fledged local investment bank. This transformative strategy is built on three main pillars with the first being the expansion of the existing product suite. ACMA’s advisory unit will expand its M&A and capital raising services, while the capital markets unit will build on its international and local sub-sovereign and corporate bonds business. 

The second pillar is geographic expansion, through which the ACMA will extend its geographic footprint across more counties in Africa and the CARICOM region. 

The third pillar will focus on departmental expansion through which additional units will be added to the department to support its mandate of becoming a comprehensive investment bank.

Last (but not least), enhancing digitalisation through the Africa Trade Gateway (ATG) will also be a key area of focus with the goal of encouraging African companies to trade via ecommerce platforms and be empowered to verify counterparts while simultaneously enabling banks to discover new financing opportunities.

In conclusion, Afreximbank’s progress in its five-year strategy is evident through its achievements and ability to overcome challenges. With clear goals and a dedicated team, the Bank is poised to continue its upward trajectory in 2024 and beyond, driving Africa’s trade and economic growth.