The Afreximbank Academy (AFRACAD), a learning, knowledge, and networking hub designed to help advance African trade through capacity building and leadership, was launched on 3rd October 2022 in Kampala, Uganda, at the three-day Afreximbank Trade Finance Seminar. Afreximbank’s proprietary corporate academy, AFRACAD, is a center of excellence for trade capacity building and the go-to source for Afrocentric knowledge and African trade expertise.
The Director & Global Head, Human Resources at Afreximbank, Stephen Kauma, said at the launch ceremony that the establishment of the Academy intends to fulfil the capacity-building dimension of the Bank’s mandate.
Stephen Kauma further explained that “Afreximbank has been at the forefront of building the capacity of Africans on the continent and the diaspora in trade-related matters. In this regard, under the Bank’s 5th Strategic Plan for the period 2016 to 2021, we planned to create a responsibility centre under which all our various capacity-building initiatives would be housed.”
He also revealed that the academy, which plans to train up to 100,000 people over the next ten years, offering up to 58 different learning opportunities, aims to unlock business opportunities by enhancing existing capacity and leadership, improving the trade environment across Africa, and enabling the continent to compete globally.
AFRACAD provides high-impact learning solutions that cover trade and project finance; industrial capacity; innovation; leadership; trade language; and Knowledge and networking.
Forthwith, AFRACAD has already begun the process of obtaining regional accreditation, starting with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), while exploring and reaching out to other accrediting bodies. The Academy has also started implementing a proof of concept using the Certificate of Trade Finance in Africa (COFTIA) programme, a flagship trade finance course that is one of the most comprehensive in Africa, which AFRACAD runs with FCI and the American University in Cairo.
As part of the celebration to launch the academy, AFRACAD offered a scholarship for one person to each institution participating in the 2022 Afreximbank Trade Finance Seminar, covering 50 percent of the tuition fees for the 2023 course for the Certificate of Trade Finance in Africa.
About Afreximbank
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. Afreximbank deploys innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa. A supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Afreximbank has launched a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement platform to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. Afreximbank is working with the AU and the AfCFTA Secretariat to develop an Adjustment Facility to support countries in effectively participating in the AfCFTA.