- The African Export-Import Bank’s new digital Customer Due Diligence (CDD) platform, called Mansa, was launched in the East African Community in partnership with the East African Business Council in Kampala recently.
- The platform is expected to facilitate cross-border trade in Africa by promoting good governance culture, transparency and accountability by African entities.
The African Export-Import Bank’s new digital Customer Due Diligence (CDD) platform, called Mansa, was launched in the East African Community in partnership with the East African Business Council in Kampala recently. The platform is expected to facilitate cross-border trade in Africa by promoting good governance culture, transparency and accountability by African entities.
Speaking at the launch of the product, the product head Maureen Mba said more than 900 businesses have already been uploaded onto the platform. The companies included financial institutions, corporates and Small and Medium Enterprises across Africa. Institutions such as Absa Bank, DFCU Bank, Cairo Bank, Opportunity Bank, Ecobank, Finance Trust Bank, NCBA Bank and Tropical Bank are already present on the platform.
The platform will act as the single source of primary data for customer due diligence and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on African entities like financial institutions, corporates and SMEs, in accordance with best practices. The key challenges faced for doing business in the continent are lack of market information, the high cost of doing business in Africa and identifying African counterparties. The platform is expected to solve these issues to a large extent and also boost international trade with Africa by reducing the perceived risk of trading in Africa. It will also reduce the cost of compliance for international banks and global trading entities. Over and above the platform is expected to give a fillip to African Continental Free Trade Area which came into effect in January this year.
