Ecobank has been named the
Best Trade Bank in Nigeria by London-based Trade Finance magazine in
their 2013 Awards for Excellence.
Their annual survey of the
magazine ranks firms based on votes gathered from industry players and
members of the magazine’s editorial team. Manufacturers, exporters,
importers, traders, government and multilateral agencies were consulted
for their input on the survey.
The
award comes amid a growing demand for trade finance, as Nigeria
continues to implement economic and structural reforms to create a
stronger and a more diverse economy.
“Our pan-African orientation
presents enormous opportunities for intra-African trade,” commented
Foluke Aboderin, executive director, corporate bank, Ecobank Nigeria,
saying “we have been particularly active in the oil and gas sector, but
we are seeing increasing demand for our innovative financing solutions,
including our online corporate banking service, Ecobank Omni, from other
key sectors in the Nigerian economy, such as telecoms, power,
manufacturing and agriculture.”
In 2013, Ecobank Nigeria
facilitated $1.2 billion of petroleum product import deals and over $450
million of trade in crude oil across the West African region.
Additionally, Ecobank Nigeria structured $100 million of oil and gas
deals on behalf of petroleum importers in Southern Africa. Ecobank
Nigeria also facilitated the export of various non-oil products across
Africa.
Accepting the award on Ecobank
Nigeria’s behalf, René Awambeng, group head of global corporates,
Ecobank, said: “Financing trade in Africa is a complex and risky
business, and the trade financiers who will profit most from the current
boom in intra-regional African trade will be those within-depth local
knowledge and expertise. Only banks like Ecobank, with a clear
understanding of the risks and world-class processes for managing them,
are able to offer leading regional and multinational businesses the
flexibility to trade across Africa that they increasingly are
demanding.”
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