ITFA ARC ACTIVITIES IN LAGOS & NAIROBI, June 2025

Written by Tedd George, Kleos Advisory UK

The ARC had a busy second quarter in 2025, with its members chairing, moderating and speaking in a number of conferences and educational workshops in Africa.

In April the ARC played a starring role at GTR West Africa 2025, which took place at the Eko Hotel in Lagos. ARC Secretariat and ITFA Chief of Staff, Tedd George, chaired the event, during which he delivered keynote presentations on the outlook for West African trade and the region’s cocoa sector, as well as moderating an expert panel discussion and three fireside chats. He also joined the final expert panel moderated by fellow ARC member and ITFA Board member, Duarte Pedreira, which focused on Africa’s trade finance gap and the mission of the Trade Finance Conference of Parties (TF COP). With nearly 400 attendees this year, the conference was the ideal platform for promoting the ARC and the output of its Working Group on SME trade finance.

The following month several ARC members took part in two events held in Nairobi on 21-22 May. At GTR East Africa 2025, Duarte Pedreira moderated a panel on TF COP and the trade finance gap, which included ARC WG members Ahanna Anaba and Morgane Lépinoy as speakers, while Simon Cook (ARC & ITFA Board member) and Laurie Hammond (ARC WG member) spoke on a panel about structuring trade finance deals in Africa.

Immediately following the GTR event, BAFT held a Bank-to-Bank Forum at which Derryn Faure moderated a panel on trade finance, global regulation and the role of Africa banks, which included as speakers Duarte and Ahanna Anaba. Fellow ARC member Kevin Holmes also appeared as a speaker on a panel discussing trade digitalization in Africa. The forum was oversubscribed, with over 200 attending on the day, and there was strong engagement from the audience and positive feedback on the relevance of the content.

Look out for ARC participation in conferences in H2 25, which will include the ITFA Annual Conference in Singapore (3-5 September), GTR Commodities in Geneva (23 September), GTR Egypt (15 October) and GTR Africa London (18 November), as well as participation at various events around TF COP (TBC).

GTR West Africa, 2025 – Images

GTR East Africa, 2025 – Images