Afreximbank and ZEP-RE Join Forces to Train Africa’s Trade-Risk Specialists

Afreximbank and African reinsurer ZEP-RE have signed a three-year agreement to build practical expertise in trade finance, insurance, reinsurance and risk management across the continent. The memorandum, signed in Nairobi in mid-September, links Afreximbank Academy, known as AFRACAD, with ZEP-RE Academy. Its immediate product is a programme for training, research and knowledge sharing, not a newly announced lending line or insurance payout.

That may sound less dramatic than a large investment figure, but the skills behind a transaction often determine whether financing reaches a business at all. An exporter needs a bank to understand payment risk; a contractor may need a credible bond; a cross-border shipment requires officials and insurers to recognise the guarantee that protects it. If those institutions cannot assess and manage risk consistently, capital can remain unavailable or expensive even when trade demand exists.

What the partners actually agreed

The institutions’ joint statement says the academies will work across three areas. First, they plan to co-create digital courses, toolkits and African case studies. Second, they intend to offer professional and executive programmes covering trade guarantees, reinsurance, financial infrastructure and related subjects. Third, they plan joint research, webinars and policy discussions that bring practitioners and regulators together. The initial term is three years and may be renewed by agreement.

Afreximbank contributes experience in financing and promoting African trade. ZEP-RE contributes insurance, reinsurance and risk-management expertise. Their combined curriculum could help bankers, insurers, customs-linked institutions and firms speak a more common technical language. But a memorandum does not tell the public how many courses will run, how many learners will complete them or how institutions will use the new skills. Those details are the next test.

The announcement names online delivery through the partners’ learning platforms as well as in-person or blended programmes. Digital delivery can reach professionals beyond major financial centres, provided the material is affordable, accessible and adapted to the legal and commercial conditions in different African markets. A generic global insurance module would be less useful than a case study that follows an actual regional trade route, its paperwork, currency risks and claims process.

Why trade risk is a real bottleneck

Cross-border trade involves uncertainty at several points. A buyer may pay late or not at all; a shipment can be delayed; a contractor can fail to perform; a guarantee may not be recognised across jurisdictions. Banks and insurers price these exposures, but inconsistent information or weak institutional capacity can lead them to charge more, demand heavy collateral or decline a transaction. For a small exporter, that difference can determine whether an order is viable.

Reinsurance helps insurers share large or concentrated risks, allowing them to support transactions they might not be comfortable holding alone. Trade guarantees and bonds can protect an authority or buyer against specific failures while freeing a company from tying up too much cash. None of these products removes risk. Their value depends on sound underwriting, clear wording, enforceable claims and prudent oversight. Better training can improve decisions only if the institutions applying it have the systems and incentives to follow through.

The need is particularly visible under the African Continental Free Trade Area agenda. Lower tariffs and harmonised rules can create opportunity, but a firm still needs working capital, logistics and confidence that an overseas customer can pay. Policy ambition does not automatically create bankable orders. Training professionals to understand cross-border risk is one piece of the infrastructure required to turn a continental market on paper into commercial activity.

Building on an existing guarantee effort

The September agreement is not the first collaboration between Afreximbank and ZEP-RE. In 2025 they launched the Trans-Africa Bond Alliance, or TABA, to strengthen the capacity for transit and other trade-related guarantees. The bank described it as a way to reduce obstacles created when traders must secure separate bonds or collateral as goods move across multiple borders. The new academy partnership adds a knowledge and training layer to that operational relationship.

That connection offers a useful route to practical learning. Cases drawn from actual guarantee programmes can show participants where a bond works smoothly, where documentation causes delay and what happens when a claim arises. Such lessons should include unsuccessful or difficult cases as well as successes. A training programme that discusses only ideal transactions may leave professionals unprepared for disputed valuations, fragmented data or a counterparty in distress.

There is also an opportunity for research to inform regulation. If multiple institutions see the same recurring problems, such as inconsistent treatment of guarantees or slow claims verification, anonymised evidence could help policymakers target reforms. That requires careful handling of commercial information and meaningful involvement from customs authorities, financial supervisors, banks and businesses. Publishing a forum agenda is not the same as resolving the friction it identifies.

Who should benefit

The most direct beneficiaries are likely to be professionals working in finance, insurance and trade facilitation. The ultimate beneficiaries should be African firms that gain more reliable access to affordable transaction support. Small and medium-sized businesses deserve particular attention because they often lack specialist legal teams and can be priced out by complex collateral requirements. If training reaches only senior staff in already sophisticated institutions, its wider development impact may be limited.

Course design should therefore include the viewpoint of exporters, freight operators and smaller contractors. Learners need to understand how a product is explained to a customer, how long approval takes and what documents a firm can realistically supply. The partners could track whether participating institutions simplify processes, expand eligibility or reduce time to a decision while maintaining responsible risk standards.

Geographic reach matters as well. A pan-African programme must address legal differences, languages and varying maturity of financial markets. Digital courses may scale quickly, but practical workshops and local trainers can help translate abstract concepts into an institution’s daily work. Participation figures should be disaggregated by country, professional role and organisation type, rather than treated as a single continental total.

How to judge the three-year partnership

A useful scorecard would start with concrete outputs: courses launched, toolkits published, learners completing assessed work and institutions adopting the materials. The harder measures are behavioural. Do staff price risks more consistently? Are guarantees issued and honoured more predictably? Do smaller firms receive decisions faster? Has the cost of immobilised collateral fallen where appropriate? These outcomes would say more about trade facilitation than the number of webinars hosted.

The partners should also distinguish their education effort from the separate guarantee facilities and financing structures they already support. A training agreement can strengthen those systems, but it should not be presented as new capital disbursed to exporters. Equally, any eventual increase in trade cannot automatically be attributed to this one partnership; currency conditions, border processes, infrastructure and demand all play a part.

Afreximbank and ZEP-RE are addressing a genuine but often overlooked constraint on intra-African commerce: the limited pool of people and institutions able to evaluate, insure and manage complex cross-border transactions well. Their agreement provides a framework for closing that gap. Whether it becomes consequential will depend on relevant teaching, broad access and evidence that trained institutions make trade less cumbersome and more dependable for the businesses they serve.