On 16 March 2026, British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, announced its first partnership with Deutsche Bank with a US$150m risk-sharing programme in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Its objective is to channel more capital and to support a greater volume of trade flows into some of the continent’s most challenging and hardest-to-reach markets.

Trade financing in Africa remains severely constrained, with a gap estimated at US$100bn annually, according to African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).

“Africa faces about US$100bn annual trade finance gap. This severely limits the ability of small and medium enterprises, which make up 80% to 90% of businesses on the continent, to engage in regional trade,” notes Afreximbank in its African Trade Report 2025 - African Trade in a Changing Global Financial Architecture. ¹

It adds, “Just 18% of African banks’ trade finance portfolios support intra-African trade, reflecting a bias towards external markets. This shortfall, exacerbated by high borrowing costs and stringent global banking regulations such as Basel IV, restricts the small and medium enterprises from scaling up their operations and integrating them into regional value chains.”

In other words, frontier markets such as those in sub-Sahara Africa are disproportionately affected as available liquidity tends to flow towards larger, lower-risk economies, leaving smaller and more vulnerable markets underserved.

Afreximbank noted that intra-African trade reached US$208bn in 2024, marking a 7.7% increase compared with 2023. Financing programmes such as the BII/Deutsche Bank risk-sharing partnership contribute to this momentum by easing liquidity constraints and improving access to credit.

Under a Master Risk Participation Agreement, ² the BII/Deutsche Bank partnership supports reducing the trade finance gap in these markets by freeing up commercial bank capital capacity. Through Deutsche Bank’s extensive network of domestic financial institutions relationships across 42 countries, the programme will enable African businesses to import key commodities and productive goods such as machinery.

The programme will be primarily directed to Africa’s least developed countries, as defined by the UN, such as Zambia, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

“We are delighted to partner with Deutsche Bank in a joint mission to expand trade finance into African frontier markets”
Ndaba Mpofu, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services Debt and Trade Finance, British International Investment

Anand Jha, Global Head of Trade Finance, Financial Institutions at Deutsche Bank said, “This partnership enhances our risk sharing capacity and strengthens our ability to facilitate sustainable cross-border transactions across the wider African market. By combining our global platform with BII's development mandate and regional expertise, we aim to unlock greater trade flows to the continent.”

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ndaba Mpofu, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services Debt and Trade Finance at BII said, “We are delighted to partner with Deutsche Bank in a joint mission to expand trade finance into African frontier markets where our investment can deliver development impact at scale. Strengthening trade finance is vital for facilitating the movement of essential goods and commodities in our markets and supporting sustainable growth. Expanding access will help build a more resilient ecosystem and unlock economic opportunities across Africa.”

Sources

¹ See African Trade Report 2025 at afreximbank.com
² See Deutsche Bank’s Guide to Trade Finance 2nd Edition section 1.5.2 at flow.db.com