- Standard Chartered and International Finance Corporation have launched a $300m risk-sharing facility.
- It aims to expand trade and supply chain finance across eight African markets.
- The programme is expected to unlock roughly $1.9 billion in transactions over three years, helping to narrow Africa’s $120 billion annual trade finance gap.
Standard Chartered and the World Bank Group’s private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), have launched a $300 million risk-sharing facility aimed at expanding trade and supply chain finance across Africa.
Under the arrangement announced on Tuesday, 28 April, the IFC will provide guarantees of up to $150 million to back trade finance assets originated by Standard Chartered, supporting transactions denominated in US dollars as well as selected local currencies.
The programme will initially cover eight markets – Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Over the next three years, the partnership is expected to facilitate approximately $1.9 billion in supply chain finance transactions and support more than 500 suppliers.
“Supply chain resilience is critical for the sustainable economic development of emerging markets,” Nicolas Langlois, Global Head of Trade Finance Distribution at Standard Chartered, told Trade Finance Global (TFG). “We are pleased to further build on our partnership with the IFC to offer clients from critical sectors solutions that help them navigate volatility and uncertainty with more confidence.”
Africa’s trade finance gap, or the value of unmet trade finance demand, is valued at $120 billion annually and limits businesses on the continent from fully participating in global trade networks. Standard Chartered and the IFC seek to address this gap.
The initiative builds on a broader push by multilateral institutions to best mobilise private capital through risk-sharing mechanisms. In December 2024, IFC and HSBC launched a $1 billion trade finance programme covering emerging markets across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Sector specifics
The facility focuses on agriculture, healthcare, and manufacturing.
Agriculture remains the economic backbone across most of the continent, but the sector faces disruptions in terms of underinvestment and supply-chain fragility. A report by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) found that smallholder farmers in Africa produce as much as 80% of the continent’s food, yet face an estimated $170 billion annual financing shortfall.
The African Development Bank has proposed a $500 million facility to unlock $10 billion in financing for smallholder farmers and small agribusinesses; there is significant potential for commercial lending to penetrate the sector.
Healthcare across the eight markets is one of the fastest-growing sectors for private investment, but it remains structurally underfunded and heavily reliant on imports. Africa’s pharmaceutical market was valued at roughly $60 billion in 2024 and is projected to more than double to $122 billion by 2032. Across the eight markets covered by the IFC-Standard Chartered facility, there has been a push for clarity and consistency in the regulatory space. Nigeria, for instance, has pioneered digital health interoperability guidelines.
Manufacturing across the eight markets is at varying stages of development, but all fall short of the 20% of GDP threshold that UNIDO considers necessary for structural transformation. Even Africa’s largest economies remain well below that benchmark: South Africa registered around 12% manufacturing value added as a share of GDP, while Nigeria and Egypt reached approximately 14% and 17% respectively.
In West Africa, manufacturing remains centred around agro-processing, as seen in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. Kenya has attracted vehicle assembly investment from the likes of Volkswagen and Nissan.
Across all three sectors, a large and growing gap between commercial potential and the availability of affordable working capital is blatant. “We are committed to ensuring maximum impact and reach for this facility across African businesses,” said Langlois.
