Dean Adansi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana International Bank (GHIB), has set out a financing blueprint to shift Africa’s commodity trade from raw exports to value-added products, arguing that the current export model is leaving billions of dollars in potential earnings on the table. He said Africa’s share of global trade remains under three percent, in part because of a persistent trade finance gap that leaves exporters unable to invest in local processing. Interest rates are significantly higher than in the West in many African countries, making it very difficult for smaller entities with short-track records to obtain the financing they need to export commodities, or even to industrialise locally,” he noted. Speaking to the BBC on the sidelines of the GHIB CONVERGE 2025 conference in London, Adansi said the causes were structural: shallow capital markets, expensive working capital, and limited regulatory and infrastructure support. He stressed that for every US$1 of tra...