Rwanda’s commercial banks have held talks with the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on expanding trade finance for local businesses.
Nearly all of Rwanda’s commercial lenders, alongside AfDB staff from its Rwanda Country Office and trade finance team, attended a meeting in Kigali, the AfDB website reported on October 20.
The meeting comes as African businesses continue to face significant barriers to financing imports and exports. The continent’s trade finance gap was estimated at between $74 billion and $92 billion in 2024, limiting the ability of businesses to trade, grow and access new markets.
The discussions focused on helping firms, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, secure funding for cross-border transactions. AfDB’s 2025 Trade Finance Report found that commercial banks intermediated only 23 percent of Africa’s trade between 2020 and 2024, down from 40 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the scale of the financing challenge.
AfDB Rwanda Country Manager Aissa Toure Sarr described the engagement as timely, saying it offered an opportunity to deepen awareness of the Bank’s trade finance program and future cooperation with Rwandan financial institutions.
Bernard Muhati, the Bank’s Principal Trade Finance Officer for East Africa, presented four instruments: a Trade Finance Line of Credit, Transaction Guarantee, Risk Participation Agreement, and Soft Commodity Finance Facility.
The products are designed to address constraints including limited foreign-currency access and payment risks in international transactions. The Soft Commodity Finance Facility also supports agricultural commodities and related supply chains, while the Bank provides technical assistance and training to strengthen lenders’ capacity.
AfDB also held bilateral discussions with almost all commercial banks operating in Rwanda to identify possible partnerships and financing opportunities. Eligible institutions must operate in an AfDB regional member country, be financially viable, maintain sound risk management and governance, and meet the Bank’s environmental and social standards.
The initiative forms part of AfDB’s wider support for Rwanda’s private-sector development and regional integration. Its current Rwanda portfolio includes 28 operations worth about $2.6 billion, covering energy, water and sanitation, transport, agriculture, skills, ICT, finance, governance and regional integration.
AfDB has also urged governments, banks and development institutions to expand SME-focused trade finance, accelerate digitalization, improve foreign-currency liquidity and simplify trade procedures.
