Wednesday, 14 October 2020
12pm London | 1pm Johannesburg

African Continental Free Trade Agreement:
Driving African Competitiveness on the Global Stage

How Banks can support new and increasing intra-Africa Trade

In partnership with

Why attend

From corporate treasurers, to banks, the implications of a fully utilised free trade agreement across Africa could lead to tomorrow's biggest opportunities, but are you ready today?

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACfTA) presents huge opportunity as one of the world's largest trading blocs by number of member countries (54). The real income gains from full implementation of the agreement could increase by 7 percent, or nearly US$450 billion (World Bank), largely driven by the eventual access to a tariff-free, unified market.

As businesses look to take advantage of the agreement and expand their customer base, African nations will continue to evolve their transportation and trading networks. Banks & financial institutions who can support new and increasing intra-African trade will be helping to increase Africa's competitiveness on the global stage.

In this webinar, our panel of experts will discuss:

👉🏼The priorities for corporate treasurers, how they will take advantage of the free trade agreement.
👉🏼Some of the challenges that corporates and banks will face as a result of increased trade, then how new digital solutions can play a part as the market progresses.
👉🏼What technologies the banks are looking at in order to support corporates’ needs, and how ready banks are to adapt to these needs and support trade.

The key take-aways

The priorities for corporate treasurers, how they will take advantage of the free trade agreement.

Some of the challenges that corporates and banks will face as a result of increased trade, then how new digital solutions can play a part as the market progresses.

What technologies the banks are looking at in order to support corporates’ needs, and how ready banks are to adapt to these needs and support trade.

And Much More

The webinar panel

Click to view full speaker details

Sachin Jain, CFO East Africa | ETG

Bohani Hlungwane, ABSA Group Head of Sales, Trade and Working Capital | ABSA

Senior global corporate banker, thought leader on Africa Trade, Trade Finance & Working Capital, speaker on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and business leader with 18 years experience in banking across geographies.

Experience in trade finance, working capital, product management, business development, business management, business strategy, operations management, transactional banking, and deal structuring.

Current role with Absa Group is Pan-African covering Southern, East and West Africa whilst previous role with HSBC was in Asia (based in Hong Kong) for 6 years where I also covered Europe, the Americas and MENA as director & global lead for Guarantees and Standby Credits.

I hold a Senior Executive Leadership Program certificate from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MBA (Strategy & Finance) from The University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Financial & Monetary Economics from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Kevin Holmes, Head , Trade , Product Management , Transactional Products and Services | STANDARD BANK

Duarte Pedreira, Head of Emerging & Frontier Markets FIG & Trade Finance | CROWNS AGENT BANK

Duarte Pedreira is an experienced trade financier, with ample exposure to trade, commodity and working capital finance in a multitude of different jurisdictions, with an emphasis in emerging markets. He is currently the head of trade finance for the UK-based Crown Agents Bank, specialising in providing trade finance services within a correspondent banking environment to financial institutions located mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

His previous experience includes senior trade finance roles with the Standard Bank Group, where he was Head of Trade Finance Sales at the bank’s head office in South Africa, and Head of Transactional Banking at Standard Bank’s Angolan operation. Subsequently, and prior to joining Crown Agents Bank, he was also Head of Structured Finance Advisory for Caspian Sea Capital and a Credit Insurance Underwriting Manager for AIG.

Duarte has a MSc in International Securities, Investment and Banking from the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) Centre, part of Henley Business School, and originally got involved with ITFA by becoming a member of the ITFA Insurance Committee.

Eric Monchu Intong, Senior Manager (Sovereigns, Financial Institutions & Corporates) | Trade Finance | AFREXIMBANK

Eric is a Corporate and Investment Banker with over 17 years’ experience. He joined Afreximbank in 2014 and is responsible for Sovereigns, Financial Institutions and Corporates across Africa, in the Trade Finance Department. Before assuming the current position, Eric was Core Banking Implementation Programme Lead, Regional Chief Operating Officer for Anglophone West Africa and Manager and Structured Trade Finance for West Africa.

Eric is the Chairman of the ITFA African Regional Committee.

Prior to joining Afreximbank, he was Vice President, Deputy Corporate Banking Head and Business Credit Officer for Citibank Cameroon responsible for Global and Local clients in Central and West Africa.

Prior to joining Citibank, Eric held various senior positions at Union Bank of Cameroon including Corporate Bank Head, Head, Treasury and Risk Management, Branch Manager and Anti-Money Laundering Reporting Head.

Eric holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting and a Post Graduate Diploma in Risk and Logistics Management both from Rotterdam Business School, The Netherlands; and a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and Finance from the University of Buea, Cameroon.

Carlos Teixeira, Global Industry Principal | FINASTRA

Carlos Teixeira is a Global Industry Principal at Finastra, with a prime focus on corporate banking.

Carlos brings more than 25 years of experience in transaction banking to his role, including 11 years spent with major European banks in their transaction banking divisions.

Since joining Misys (now Finastra) in 2005, he has held roles with responsibility for driving successful trade services implementations across India, the Middle-East and Africa as well as providing technology and business insights on sales engagements.

He now provides executive advisory regarding market trends and technology transformation across all areas of corporate banking on a global basis

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African Continental Free Trade Agreement:Driving African Competitiveness on the Global Stage

Why attend

The key take-aways

The webinar panel

African Continental Free Trade Agreement:
Driving African Competitiveness on the Global Stage