The fifth edition of the African Development Bank’s Trade Finance Report has highlighted the resilience of African financial institutions in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, despite mounting global economic pressures and persistent trade finance challenges across the continent.
According to a statement, the 2025 Trade Finance Report released on Wednesday during the African Development Bank Group’s 2026 Annual Meetings in Brazzaville, Congo, examined Africa’s trade finance landscape between 2020 and 2024, focusing on bank-intermediated trade, digitalisation, environmental sustainability and the growing role of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).
According to the report, intra-African trade accounted for 34 per cent of total bank-intermediated trade between 2020 and 2024, representing an 89 per cent increase above pre-pandemic levels recorded between 2011 and 2019. The report said the rise reflected growing momentum toward regional trade integration and stronger continental supply chains.
Presenting the report, Anthony Simpasa, Director of the Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research Department at the African Development Bank, said the unmet demand for trade finance declined by nearly 10 per cent between 2019 and 2024 due to interventions from multilateral development banks, governments, export credit agencies and global banks.
He noted that these interventions played a critical role in sustaining trade flows across the continent during and after the pandemic.
However, Simpasa warned that renewed geopolitical tensions and disruptions to global supply chains could reverse recent progress.
“For instance, tighter correspondent risk appetite could widen the trade finance gap to between $86.6 billion and $102.6 billion by 2027 under a moderate to severe scenario,” he said, warning that this could erase a decade of gains in narrowing Africa’s trade finance gap.
The report estimated that Africa’s unmet demand for trade finance ranged between $74 billion and $92 billion in 2024, representing about 5.4 per cent of the continent’s total merchandise trade value.
It also found that African trade remains significantly underserved by commercial banks. Between 2020 and 2024, commercial banks intermediated an average of 23 per cent of Africa’s total trade, down from 40 per cent during the 2011-2019 period.
Foreign exchange liquidity shortages emerged as one of the most significant barriers to trade finance growth. About 36 per cent of surveyed banks identified limited foreign exchange liquidity as their primary constraint between 2020 and 2024, compared with 18 per cent in the previous five-year period.
The report also highlighted slow adoption of digital trade finance tools across the continent. Only 28 per cent of surveyed banks reported using digital platforms for trade finance operations, with high implementation costs and weak technological infrastructure identified as major barriers.
A panel discussion following the report launch brought together policymakers, private-sector leaders and trade finance experts to discuss opportunities and challenges facing African trade finance.
Senior Advisor to AfDB President Sidi Ould Tah for the Private Sector, Didier Acouetey, said initiatives such as the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) could help close the continent’s trade finance gap more systematically.
“NAFAD gives us, for the first time, a coherent continental framework to close the trade finance gap — not project by project, but systemically,” Acouetey said.
Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals at the African Union Commission, Francisca Tatchouop Belobe, called for stronger support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), arguing that many SMEs remain excluded from traditional trade finance systems.
Admassu Tadesse, Group President and Managing Director of Trade and Development Bank, said innovations such as digitisation, guarantees and asset management initiatives were gradually helping expand trade finance opportunities across Africa.
Meanwhile, Mehdi Tanani, Regional Director for Central Africa at Proparco, said Africa needed a more resilient and sustainable trade finance ecosystem capable of protecting SMEs from global economic shocks while accelerating continental integration.
The report also highlighted the growing role of development finance institutions in narrowing Africa’s trade finance gap. According to the findings, DFIs facilitated about $32 billion in trade finance annually between 2020 and 2024, accounting for roughly 3 per cent of Africa’s total merchandise trade over the period.
Read the full report here.
