Africa Trade Gateway Launched: to provide a single window for digital services under AfCFTA

The Africa Trade Gateway (ATG), a collection of five digital platforms created as a single window by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), was unveiled yesterday in Accra. The ATG offers crucial services to support and promote African trade as well as the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), allowing the Bank to better fulfill its mandate.

The gateway digital ecosystem, which includes the MANSA due diligence platform, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the TRADAR Club, the Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX), and ATG Connect, was introduced by Mrs. Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade Bank, of Afreximbank, on the sidelines of the ongoing 30th Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2023).

Speaking to attendees at the launch, Mrs. Awani explained that Afreximbank’s digital evolution was a deliberate strategic response to the continent’s major problems in order to hasten development and promote economic prosperity for Africans by utilizing digital technologies and business models.

“Each of our digital interventions is created to address specific obstacles and constraints that people trying to engage in trade and investment in Africa face. I’m glad that each intervention has been a success in becoming a reality and applaud the dedication of our partners and colleagues for helping us reach these milestones. However, the Bank is creating a customer-focused Africa Trade Gateway to consolidate outcomes, optimize net benefits, generate more efficiency, promote higher synergistic value, speed regional integration, extend and create new access markets, and accelerate the digital economy in Africa.

She referred to ATG as the entrance to an exclusive digital ecosystem designed for African trade, backed by Afreximbank and the AfCFTA in conjunction with their partners, to meet the demands of businesses, governments, and stakeholders by facilitating trade, commerce, and investment.

According to Ms. Awani, clients could complete all of their transactions using the ATG in a single window.

Due diligence on African enterprises, financial institutions, corporations, and SMEs can be conducted using MANSA, Africa’s due diligence platform, which offers a single source of primary data. Additionally, it offers a complementary collection of data on investments in Africa, national profiles, and traded goods and services from African nations.

PAPSS was created to facilitate effective payments for intra-African trade in local currencies, fostering trade within Africa, reducing risk, and advancing financial integration inside Africa. The PAPSS payment and settlement mechanism was approved by the African Union heads of state at their summit in Niamey in July 2019 to facilitate the implementation of the AfCFTA. Cairo serves as its current operating base.

TRADAR Club is a member-driven network that helps members find new markets, expand their businesses, save time, access specialized expert support, post and respond to new business opportunities, network, meet trading partners, and more. It aims to empower international businesses and executives to transform trade and investments in Africa through trusted trade intelligence and advisory services.

International business titans, domestic and international corporations, non-governmental organizations, decision-makers, and anyone devoted to fostering growth and development in Africa are all eligible to join.

The 54th Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development in Dakar, Senegal, in May 2022 saw the launch of ATEX, a B2B and B2G e-commerce platform designed to assist small, medium-sized, and large African businesses in expanding into new markets in Africa and streamlining their supply chains. It makes it possible to purchase essential goods in bulk in order to guarantee transparent access to suppliers.

Africa’s business service providers are linked by ATG Connect. It offers freight and logistics connectivity solutions that make it easy to connect and match customers’ requests for freight and logistics with carriers that are listed on the platform. Customers can receive very affordable rates for the pickup and delivery of items to and from any location in Africa.

The launch event featured presentations on the services provided by the various digital platforms as well as a panel discussion by the heads of the platforms where they talked about the services they provided to facilitate trade among African nations and the AfCFTA’s implementation.