Fitch affirms Afreximbank

Fitch Ratings said it affirmed the African Export-Import Bank's (Afreximbank) long-term issuer default rating at BBB- with a stable outlook and short-term issuer default rating at F3.

Afreximbank's ratings primarily reflect the bank's sound structural asset quality despite its risky business environment, the agency said, noting that the bank's operations are overwhelmingly made of short-term and self-liquidating trade finance loans extended to African banks and corporates.

Through the extensive recourse to trade receivable collateralisation, transaction structures often shift a substantial part of the bank's credit risk to entities located in OECD countries and mitigate the concentration risk on some countries - Nigeria and Zimbabwe - sectors and specific obligors, Fitch said.

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