GTR Africa Conference in London - 2024

Global Trade Review holds a series of conferences across the world every year focusing on the key issues facing the import/export community in the region in question. They have a very specific focus on Africa and they hold annual conferences in Cape Town in March, Lagos in April, Nairobi in May and Cairo in October. They also host a GTR MENA conference in Dubai every February and conclude each calendar year with a GTR Africa conference in London, one of the largest global trade centres and one that is heavily invested in the African continent.

GCC is a proud Silver Sponsor of the annual GTR conferences held in Sub-Saharan Africa, and CEO Dheerie Govender is a regular attendee at most of the above-mentioned events. This month he attended the GTR Africa conference in London, joining 500 other delegates and a wide array of guest speakers. The delegates represented a host of government organisations, commodity trade partners and financial institutions such as banks and insurance organisations.

This GTR London conference is unique in the fact that it is attended by many influential African trade partners whose head offices and operations are in London. The speakers most often present an off-shore perspective on trading in Africa, an understanding of which is highly important to the future health of the industry.

This year, GTR Africa London focused on a wide variety of topics with over 50 key experts appearing in panel format, discussing the many challenges facing African trade, export and infrastructure finance. Further discussions entailed the rapidly changing dynamics of the global economy and emerging opportunities for African trade.

The key discussion points this year included:

• A macro-economic analysis for African trade
• Climate-aligned infrastructure and alternative finance solutions
• Working capital, SME and local bank credit solutions
• The export credit market and impact of OECD reform
• Sovereign debt frameworks and the outlook for reform
• The capacity appetite for Africa’s CPRI market

As always, the event was an ideal opportunity to connect, at a single location, with the key role players and exhibitors from the trade finance industry. Conversations focused on the persistent lack of action on the climate change front, the ongoing drought in the SADC region, long timelines, broader governmental and political issues, outdated and restrictive national trade policies, ongoing currency challenges and finally on the broader continental opportunities opening up in Africa in 2025.