A new master risk participation agreement (MRPA) was signed between the African Export‑Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) at the 2026 Mining Indaba in Cape Town. The MRPA offers African businesses the opportunity to expand trade finance, reduce risks in cross-border transactions, and speed up the beneficiation of critical minerals.
DBSA CEO Boitumelo Mosako and Humphrey Nwugi, regional director Southern Africa at Afreximbank, at the 2026 Mining Indaba in Cape Town. Image supplied.
The agreement is a risk‑sharing framework for funded and unfunded participations that supports local capital markets by providing regional banks with trade-finance lines of credit.
Market intergration
The MRPA creates a standing legal framework that lets both institutions deploy capital faster and at greater scale than ad hoc, transaction‑by‑transaction approaches.
Participation structures will expand approval capacity, extend tenors and lower the cost of trade finance for exporters, importers and regional banks.
By addressing the critical bottleneck of affordable, reliable trade finance, the agreement directly supports African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation and intra‑African market integration.
The MRPA targets trade‑intensive, working‑capital heavy value chains — especially critical minerals — supporting equipment imports, processing inputs, inventory cycles and cross‑border movement of intermediate goods.
From raw extraction to beneficiation
Africa, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in particular, holds a significant share of critical minerals.
The MRPA shifts financing emphasis from purely long‑term project finance to trade finance solutions that enable beneficiation, local processing and regional value‑chain development, helping the continent capture more value and create sustainable jobs and factories.
Boitumelo Mosako, DBSA CEO, said, “This partnership with Afreximbank is a decisive step in unlocking Africa’s trade and industrial potential.
“By expanding access to affordable, reliable trade finance, we are de‑risking cross‑border transactions, strengthening regional value chains, and enabling African businesses to move from raw extraction to beneficiation.
“Today’s agreement is about scale, speed and impact—delivering the finance that will turn resources into sustainable jobs, factories and exports across the continent."
