Browsing: Africa China Agent Proposition (ACAP) initiative

China has been funding a lot of Africa’s development especially in the past two decades and in that time, Beijing has loaned to Africa a whopping USD160 billion.

This debt burden is here to stay, and to stay for a long time, that is unless China is willing to forego or at least ease the terms of the loans.  To put it in the words of the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo;

“It is something that the African countries should consider, too, in asking China to possibly enter debt relief on some deals that have incredibly onerous terms that will impact the African people for an awfully long time, if relief is not granted.”

This should not be a problem for the runner’s up for World’s biggest economy, in fact China is among the world’s richest 20 countries which are known as the Great 20 or more …

Stanbic Bank Kenya and Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have partnered with Chinese Trade Agent Zhejiang International Trading Supply Chain Co. Ltd (Guomao) to launch the Africa China Agent Proposition (ACAP) initiative. (https://navalpost.com/)

The initiative which has been launched in different parts of Africa aims to assist African importers source and validate quality goods, safely and efficiently, from the most competitive suppliers in China.

The ACAP offering is expected to revolutionize African importers’ view of China’s supplier universe. It will also ease the cash flow of African importers by providing access to financing while empowering importers with sight and control of the entire importing and logistics process.

It was initially launched in Nigeria and Ghana in May 2019 with roll out to South Africa and Kenya following.

Currently African importers order from only a handful of trusted Chinese suppliers. This limits the negotiating power of African importers …