Ghana International Bank Plc (GHIB), a UK-regulated lender specialising in trade finance and correspondent banking, has been appointed as a confirming bank under the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)’s Transaction Guarantee Instrument — a facility designed to extend additional guarantees to businesses and banks engaged in cross-border trade across the continent.
The agreement, signed in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, positions GHIB to provide confirming bank support for eligible trade transactions, connecting African importers, exporters, and financial institutions with broader global financial networks at a time when access to trade-related financing remains a persistent constraint for businesses operating across African markets.
AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation Solomon Quaynor said the partnership directly supports the bank’s mandate. “GHIB’s strength in providing confirming bank support to local banks in these and other African countries is perfectly aligned with AfDB’s mandate of promoting regional integration,” Quaynor said.
He added that the arrangement also advances AfDB’s strategy to build trade finance capacity as implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) — the continent-wide agreement aimed at creating a single market for goods and services across 55 African Union member states — continues to gather pace.
AfCFTA’s success depends heavily on the ability of African businesses to finance cross-border transactions. A persistent trade finance gap — driven by limited correspondent banking relationships, risk aversion among global banks, and thin capital bases at many African lenders — has long constrained the volume of intra-African commerce, making partnerships of this kind structurally significant beyond any single institution.
GHIB Chief Executive Officer Ian Greenstreet said the appointment reinforces the bank’s continental role. “It strengthens our ability to support businesses engaged in international trade and reinforces our commitment to facilitating economic growth and investment across Africa,” Greenstreet said.
AfDB framed the agreement as part of a broader effort to strengthen financial institutions operating in low-income countries and transition economies — markets where trade finance shortfalls tend to be most acute and where the development bank sees the greatest need for expanded private sector capacity.
GHIB’s core business spans trade finance, correspondent banking, corporate banking, and treasury services, giving it a footprint that bridges African markets and international financial systems. Its appointment under the AfDB instrument extends that bridging function into a formal guarantee framework, potentially widening the range of transactions it can support for African counterparties.
AfDB said the partnership reflects a shared focus on expanding intra-African trade, supporting private sector growth, and improving access to the financing that underpins economic activity across the continent.
