Algiers, Algeria –African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is promoting uptake of factoring, an innovative supply chain financing tool that allows Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to sell their unpaid invoices to immediately access working capital, in Africa.
On the sidelines of the recently concluded Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 (IATF2025) in Algiers, Algeria, Afreximbank held a Factoring Exposition and Workshop to promote the growth of factoring and supply chain finance across Africa. Co-organised with FCI, the world’s leading association for factoring and receivables finance, it was hosted under the auspices of the Bank of Algeria and welcomed about 100 participants from across Africa.
Under the theme ‘Empowering SMEs through Factoring: Unlocking Growth and Financial Optimisation’, the event drew heavily on Afreximbank’s mission to promote factoring and supply chain finance, particularly by extending alternative financing to SMEs. It highlighted the Bank’s leadership in the promotion and development of factoring in Africa.
Addressing the participants, Mrs. Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade and Export Development at Afreximbank, called for commitment in raising awareness, advocating for robust legal frameworks, providing trade credit insurance and scaling technical know-how so as to transform factoring from a marginal tool into a mainstream engine of Africa’s economic rise.
Mrs. Awani said that Africa’s SMEs faced a crippling financing gap of over US$300 billion which leaves 51 per cent of them in need of more growth capital than they could access from traditional commercial banking sources. “Without urgent solutions, the 12–15 million young Africans entering our labour markets each year will confront limited opportunity. This is why Afreximbank, about two decades ago, took up the mantle to support SME financing via factoring.”
As a result of Afreximbank’s comprehensive factoring strategy, factoring volumes in Africa more than doubled from 21.6 billion euros in 2017 to 50 billion euros in 2024, with the number of countries engaging in factoring growing and Africa’s factoring companies expanding to nearly 200.
Also speaking at the event, Mr. Neal Harm, the Secretary General of FCI, said that the body’s mission centred on connecting member, industry and global business network and providing the legal framework for cross-border factoring; educating and equipping professionals with the knowledge and skills to expand the industry, and holding events to share insights and build capacity; and exercising influence by engaging with regulators and policymakers to create environments in which receivables finance could thrive.
Mr. Harm said that SMEs remained the backbone of Africa’s economies, accounting for at least 80 per cent of all formal enterprises. He pointed out that when SMEs succeed, jobs are created, communities prosper, and inclusive development takes root, but added that, too often, their growth is held back by limited access to working capital.
“This is where factoring makes such a difference. By converting receivables into immediate cash, it provides SMEs with liquidity when they need it most. It reduces the burden of collateral requirements, and it enables businesses to strengthen relationships with buyers and suppliers,” the FCI Secretary General said.
In his speech, Mr. Abdelhamid Boualouadnine, Director General, Directorate of Credit and Banking Regulation, Bank of Algeria, welcomed the workshop as an important platform to share experiences and an opportunity to highlight Afreximbank’s vision to contribute to building the African continent.
As a follow up to the workshop, Afreximbank, in partnership with FCI, offered to organise a technical training and capacity building session for the Bank of Algeria and other key stakeholders to provide regulators with the requisite understanding to regulate and support factoring. The partners also committed to providing financing to factoring companies and upskilling their knowledge in factoring whilst providing them with the global factoring toolkits for operationalising successful factoring operations
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