Ecobank named Best Trade Bank in Nigeria

Ecobank has been named the Best Trade Bank in Nigeria by London-based Trade Finance magazine in their 2013 Awards for Excellence. Its annual survey 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.

This 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. “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 products 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 at 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 with in-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.”