Afreximbank launches Mansa, Africa’s Due Diligence Data Platform

Categories: Press Releases

Abuja, 13 July 2018: – The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) yesterday in Abuja launched “Mansa” – a pan-African customer due diligence platform that will facilitate African trade by providing the single trusted source of primary data required to conduct due diligence checks on counterparties in Africa.

The Mansa platform is being positioned as the centralised ‘go to’ platform for fulfilling client due diligence (CDD) and know your customer (KYC) requirements throughout the African continent. By providing comprehensive due diligence information it will end the subjective evaluation of customers and eliminate the perceived, and often unfair, risk in trading with African counterparties. The platform also offers insight into the investment climate and information on related services on the continent.

The platform is named after Mansa Musa, the powerful ruler of the West African Malian Empire in the 1300s, who was responsible for opening up trade across Africa by establishing Timbuktu as a commercial, cultural and religious centre. He is believed to be the only person ever to control the flow of gold between Africa and the Mediterranean.

Speaking during the launching, Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said: “Our new Mansa platform is a natural extension of Afreximbank’s mission to expand, develop and diversify African trade. Mansa will enhance intra-African trade by enabling the efficient on-boarding of customers whilst reducing both operational workloads and the costs of compliance. Sometimes a new service comes along which represents a win-win for its users and Mansa is a perfect example of this.

Afreximbank has taken the lead by creating a platform for client due diligence and know your customer. It will enable African financial institutions and corporate entities to meet customer and business partners’ expectations at the same time as ensuring consistent and effective regulatory compliance.”

The ultimate aim of the platform is to increase trade in, and with, Africa by de-risking compliance and strengthening relationships between international banks and global trading entities with their African counterparties, by promoting good governance, transparency and accountability, he added.

Media Contact: Obi Emekekwue (oemekekwue@afreximbank.com; Tel. +202-2456-4238)

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About Afreximbank: The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is the foremost pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. The Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors. Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organization, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations. Since 1994, it has approved about $60 billion in credit facilities for African businesses, including about $8.5 billion in 2017. Afreximbank had total assets of $11.9 billion as at 31 December 2017 and is rated BBB+ (GCR), Baa1 (Moody’s), and BBB- (Fitch). The Bank is headquartered in Cairo. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com