African Development Bank to launch trade finance e-learning programme

This programme will provide online post-training to about 500 trade finance staff of 200 local partner banks in more than 35 African countries over a three-year period. Part of the program will be funded by German international cooperation agencies (BMZ/GIZ) under the MFW4A Trade Finance Initiative, which aims to improve the understanding of the trade finance market in Africa, and promote sound financial sector policy, regulatory reforms and joint thematic research.

The initial phase of the programme will deliver the Global Trade Certificate (GTC), a nine e-courses curriculum designed to sell, deliver and process global trade finance solutions, including Islamic (Trade) Finance courses. The Global Trade Certificate (GTC) is offered by the ICC Academy, the educational arm of the International Chamber of Commerce.

The partnership has two objectives. First, it will help local partner banks to strengthen their trade finance capacity, required to extend superior services to SMEs and local businesses clientele engaged in international trade. Second, it is expected that the partner banks experiment and introduce more sophisticated trade finance products in line with the evolution of the market and the needs of their clients, including in the area of Islamic finance.