Bank of Africa (BOA), a large commercial bank headquartered in Morocco, has secured a €70mn facility from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to boost trade finance across the continent.

The facility is comprised of a €50mn risk participation agreement and a €20mn trade finance line of credit.

The risk participation agreement aims to allow BOA to support local African banks’ trade finance needs, as they “increasingly face a decline in financing and confirmation lines with their foreign counterparts”, according to an AfDB press release.

The trade finance line of credit will be used to facilitate access to finance for Moroccan SMEs operating in the health, agriculture, pharmaceutical, automotive and transport sectors.

The AfDB says it expects the facility to catalyse almost €300mn in trade over a three-and-a-half-year period.

“We are delighted with this first partnership with BOA, a leading player in Africa. Together, in Morocco and across the continent, we are strengthening financial inclusion for SMEs involved in foreign trade, to help them to operate more widely,” says Achraf Hassan Tarsim, head of the AfDB’s country office in Morocco.

Morocco has worked to leverage its position as a conduit between Sub-Saharan African and Europe in recent years. Industry experts commented last month that Morocco was experiencing nearshoring of European companies “on a massive scale”, describing the country as “a North African gateway into Africa”.

The country has also invested heavily in trade infrastructure. The development of the deep-water port, Tangier Med, along with its road and rail networks have allowed Morocco to insert itself “into global value chains […] and build an export-driven industry”, according to a September article by economist Alexandre Kateb.

Morocco’s foreign exchange office reports that goods exports grew by 30.1% in 2022.