VIDEO | Transforming African trade and enabling a just transition - Trade Treasury Payments

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At the ITFA Trade and Forfaiting Conference in Singapore, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) spoke with Thierry Hebraud, Chief Executive Officer of Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB), about Africa’s trade transformation agenda and the continent’s path toward a just transition.

Hebraud said, “Africa today is a major exporter of raw materials and an importer of finished goods. Intra-African trade is only 16%, and that’s very low. The key goal is to transform resources inside the continent and develop intra-African trade.”

Examples of this shift can already be seen. In Nigeria, the Dangote refinery has allowed the country to process its own crude oil into refined products, which has reduced the country’s dependency on imports and while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. 

Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (which holds 74% of global cobalt supply) most exports are still shipped as raw material to China. Hebraud pointed out that smelting locally and exporting higher-value products would deliver greater benefits. “A ton of bauxite is worth $65. Aluminium from that bauxite is worth $2,500. That is the magnitude of the transformation Africa needs,” he said.

MCB as an African Bank is actively supporting investors, private equity funds, Global Corporates and African corporates engaged in African productions via our full suites of Supply chain financing, financing products and solutions. The bank is also backing renewable energy projects in solar, hydro, geothermal, and wind, while recognising the need for oil and gas in the medium term to enable a just transition. “Six hundred million Africans today have no access to electricity,” Hebraud noted. “If you want to move this population to an acceptable standard of living, you have to develop this continent. That’s the way we do it.”

Beyond financing, Mauritius itself made history this past month by being the first African country that has enacted legal reforms that recognise electronic bill of exchange. As part of its trade digitalisation efforts, it is also establishing regulatory frameworks for virtual assets and making strides to become a key gateway between Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. 

Hebraud said, “We continue to be on the forefront of this transition. It is quite natural that Mauritius is among the first movers.”