• Both partners target to expand supply chain finance across eight African markets with the deal

• $1.9 billion deal flow is expected to occurred over three years to ease working-capital strains on suppliers.

• The facility is designed to absorb part of risk premium, freeing balance-sheet space for short-term trade assets.

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group's private-sector arm, and Standard Chartered Plc launched a $300 million risk-sharing facility to expand supply chain finance across eight African markets, the two institutions said Wednesday.

IFC will provide guarantees of up to $150 million from its own account, with a first tranche of $100 million committed to back transactions in U.S. dollars and selected local currencies, according to a statement issued from Washington. The program will operate in Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, covering payables finance, receivables discounting and pre-shipment instruments.

"Supply chain finance is among the fastest ways to narrow the growing finance gap that businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, are facing in emerging economies," Mohamed Gouled, IFC's vice president for products and clients, said in the statement. The lender ended its 2025 fiscal year (June 2025) with a record $71.7 billion in commitments to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries.

The partnership is projected to enable about $1.9 billion in supply chain finance transactions over three years and reach more than 500 suppliers, with indirect benefits for over 1 million farmers — a scale that positions the program as IFC's first under its newly structured Global Supply Chain Finance Program.

Capital access gap

Global supply chain finance volumes climbed about 8% in 2025 to roughly $2.7 trillion, according to industry estimates cited in the statement, yet penetration in low-income and fragile economies has lagged as commercial banks concentrate exposure in developed markets. The IFC-Standard Chartered facility is designed to absorb part of that risk premium, freeing balance-sheet space for short-term trade assets in jurisdictions where dollar liquidity tightened after the U.S. Federal Reserve's 2022-2024 hiking cycle.

Standard Chartered, listed in London and Hong Kong with operations in 54 markets, has positioned its African franchise as a corridor bank linking the continent to Europe, Asia and the Gulf. "This $300 million facility with IFC underscores our shared commitment to strengthening Africa's supply chains and enabling sustainable business growth," Dalu Ajene, the bank's chief executive for Africa, said in the statement. The facility will be deployed alongside IFC's Africa Trade and Supply Chain Recovery Initiative, backed by the IDA Private Sector Window Blended Finance Facility.

The first tranche is expected to begin originating transactions in the coming months, with deployment skewed toward agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing value chains, where supplier payment cycles in Africa typically stretch beyond 90 days.

Idriss Linge