Afreximbank at 30: The Institution That Is Quietly Reshaping African Trade Finance
Founded in 1993 with $500 million in capital, Afreximbank has grown into a $30 billion institution underwriting some of the continent's most transformative trade and investment deals. Its next phase is even more ambitious.
The African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023. Founded in Cairo in 1993 with the modest mission of facilitating African trade, it has become one of the continent's most consequential financial institutions, with a loan portfolio exceeding $30 billion and operations across every African regional bloc.
Afreximbank's growth trajectory, from $500 million in founding capital to $30 billion in assets, has been driven by a combination of strategic clarity, disciplined risk management, and the willingness to finance transactions that commercial banks consider too risky or too complex. When COVID-19 vaccines needed to be purchased for African nations that lacked hard currency, Afreximbank provided the advance purchase guarantee facility. When African countries needed to restructure dollar-denominated commodity export agreements, Afreximbank provided the bridge financing.
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PAPSS: The Payment System Revolution
Afreximbank's most ambitious recent initiative is the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). Launched in January 2022, PAPSS provides the infrastructure for intra-African cross-border payments to settle in local currencies, eliminating the costly and time-consuming routing through dollar correspondent banks that has historically made cross-border African trade expensive.
The system has processed over $3 billion in transactions since launch, with 14 African countries and over 40 commercial banks connected. Full continental coverage, all 54 African central banks, is the target for 2026.
The AfCFTA Adjustment Fund
As AfCFTA implementation accelerates, some countries face short-term revenue losses from tariff reductions. Afreximbank has established a $10 billion Adjustment Fund to help member states manage this fiscal transition, providing the budgetary space needed to implement trade liberalisation without immediate fiscal crisis.
This role, fiscal stabiliser for African trade reform, is unique among multilateral development banks, and it reflects Afreximbank's positioning as an institution that works inside African political and economic realities rather than around them.
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