The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $200 million trade finance facility for the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) to support businesses trading across Africa. The bank announced the approval on Monday, 9 November 2026, after its board of directors approved the facility on 28 October.

The facility is a revolving Trade Finance Line of Credit. It will allow TDB to extend trade finance to financial institutions, companies and small and medium-sized enterprises involved in imports and exports whose growth has been held back by limited access to liquidity.

More than $1 billion in trade expected

Because the facility is revolving, funds repaid by borrowers can be lent again for further transactions. The AfDB said the $200 million line is expected to support more than $1 billion in trade transactions over its three-and-a-half-year tenor.

The facility is also intended to support the purchase of critical goods, including refined petroleum products, fertiliser, pharmaceuticals and essential food commodities, in TDB’s eligible member states. It falls under the AfDB’s recently adopted Global Energy and Fertilizer Crisis Response Framework, which responds to pressures created by energy and fertiliser market shocks.

The bank said the facility is designed to help reduce Africa’s trade finance gap, boost intra-African trade and promote regional integration, in line with the aims of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Backing for banks and small businesses

Lamin Drammeh, the AfDB’s head of trade finance, said the approval was particularly timely given rising commodity prices, logistics difficulties, tighter financing conditions and geopolitical uncertainty affecting African economies.

Joy Ntare, TDB Group executive vice president for finance and risk, said the partnership between the two institutions also covered equity, risk-sharing, co-financing and long-term financing. TDB, which is headquartered in Mauritius and operates across Eastern and Southern Africa, will channel the finance to clients across the continent.

The facility is part of a wider AfDB push to close the continent’s trade finance shortfall. In October, the bank also announced guarantee facilities with Equity Bank in Kenya, Exim Bank in Tanzania and AFG Bank in Cameroon.