The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with Factors Chain International (FCI) is set to hold a two-day conference to promote the use of factoring to enhance access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa.

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A statement issued on Tuesday by the spokesman of Afreximbank, Amadou Sall, and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said the conference would hold in Nairobi, Kenya from Feb. 27 and Feb. 28.

Sall said that Afreximbank and FCI factoring would provide more financing to SMEs than traditional lending channels, if the knowledge and capability were shared.

Factoring is a financial transaction and a type of debtor finance in which a business sells its accounts receivable (i.e. invoices) to a third party (called a factor) at a discount.

A business will sometimes factor its receivable assets to meet its present and immediate cash needs.

He said that the conference was aimed at creating awareness, building capacity and providing opportunities for networking in the factoring industry.

“Promoting Intra-African Trade and facilitating Industrialization and Export Development are key pillars of Afreximbank’s current strategy.

“We believe that factoring will support their implementation capacity in the context of the untapped opportunities. Factoring provides a solution to address the challenge of access to financing for African SMEs.

“Afreximbank will continue to play a leading role in facilitating the growth of factoring in Africa especially in creating awareness and building requisite capacity,” he said.

Sall recalled that the Managing Director, Intra-African Trade Initiative Afreximbank, Mr Kanayo Awani, had generally recognised that Africa presents some of the most exciting global opportunities for economic development and expansion.

Sall said that factoring was capable of providing support for future success in both funding SMEs and inter-African trade, adding that FCI’s African Chapter is in place to help guide this expansion and develop the necessary skills in market to drive growth at the regional level.

Sall said that the regional conference would attract 120 senior executives from factoring companies, banks and non-bank financial institutions, government agencies, consulting firms and IT providers.