The African Export- Import Bank (Afreximbank) has called on African countries to pay more attention to the development of public and private Export Trading Companies (ETCs) in order to position the continent’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate effectively in global trade.
In an address to the Africa International Exhibition, which opened on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Mrs,Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade Bank,
who delivered the President of the Bank, Prof. Benedict Oramah’s address at the event, said that SMEs participating directly in global trade faced stiff competition from multinational and significantly large corporates, making their chances of success or survival marginal, if not zero.
Oramah noted that Asia had addressed that challenge by establishing ETCs to act as conduits through which SMEs accessing global markets, explaining that ETCs acted as aggregators and created a sizeable volume of trade that attracted greater value and withstood competition.
