TDB was announced as this year’s winner of the Best Development Bank at the Global Trade Review (GTR) Leaders in Trade Awards ceremony held in London this past 4th of May 2022. GTR awards “highlight excellence in the trade, commodity, supply chain, export finance and fintech markets. Each year GTR recognises the market’s pioneering institutions and top performers from around the world“.
This accolade celebrates TDB’s continued excellence in driving impact in the region it serves through trade finance activities. It recognizes the Bank’s critical role facilitating greater intra- and inter-African trade, addressing supply chain disruptions as well as trade finance and forex shortages, and tireless drive to stay at the forefront of innovation.
More specifically in 2021, TDB’s performance was anchored on several landmark transactions aiming to improve food and energy security in the region by financing the importation of strategic commodities such as fertilizers, food, and fuel – with many trade finance transactions executed via blockchain technology. Likewise, TDB worked on improving financial inclusion by extending financing to local financial institutions which serve exporting SMEs among others.
2021 saw the Bank’s portfolio grow by 6% to USD5.8bn. Its trade finance operations grew by 16% during the year and now account for about two thirds of TDB’s loan book.
Over the past few years, TDB has stepped-up its market presence as a first point of call for the financing and co-financing of projects and trade transactions with substantial impact, in line with SDG, Agenda 2063 and Paris Agreement imperatives.
TDB is now also further expanding impact through novel TDB Group initiatives including the Trade and Development Fund (TDF), and the Eastern and Southern African Trade Fund (ESATF). As TDB continues to deepen its sub-regional presence and to expand its suite of products and services, it is amplifying its reach, including to the most vulnerable, contributing to development on a triple-bottom line basis through trade finance in the region.
This award follows various 2021 GTR wins including development finance Leaders in Trade for Resilience, and a Best Deal of the Year award for its trade finance support to a woman-owned Malagasy fair trade exporter. Earlier this year, TDB was named by Global Finance Best Bank for Trade Finance in Frontier Markets.