African Development Bank Unlocks $20 Million to Open Global Trade for Zambia’s Small Businesses

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a $20 million Trade Finance Transaction Guarantee for Access Bank Zambia Limited, a move that will significantly expand access to trade finance for small and medium enterprises across Zambia.

This marks the first transaction between the African Development Bank and Access Bank Zambia, and forms part of the Bank’s broader Trade Finance Program. Since 2013, the program has supported over $13.8 billion in trade volumes across 129 financial institutions throughout the continent.

The Transaction Guarantee will provide up to 100 per cent risk cover to international confirming banks on trade finance instruments issued by Access Bank Zambia. The facility is expected to support up to $240 million in trade volumes over its five-year life, a significant multiplier on the initial guarantee, and a direct intervention in one of Zambia’s most persistent economic bottlenecks.

Access Bank Zambia Managing Director Hellen Mwangi said the guarantee will help accelerate growth among SMEs by easing access to cross-border trade finance and deepening trade flows.

Beyond its direct impact, the facility serves as a signal to international confirming banks that Zambia-originated trade is a creditworthy proposition, helping to unlock greater participation from global financial markets. For a country whose SME sector drives nearly nine in ten jobs, that signal carries weight well beyond the balance sheet.

The Zambia approval is part of a wider pattern of AfDB trade finance interventions across the continent. In recent months, similar guarantees have been extended to Access Bank Sierra Leone, First Capital Bank Zimbabwe, Exim Bank Tanzania, and Banco Comercial e de Investimentos in Mozambique, showing a sustained continental push to close the trade finance gap that constrains Africa’s small business sector at scale.

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