{"id":66074,"date":"2024-05-15T11:27:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T11:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mercore-seals-first-digital-bill-of-exchange-deal-in-africa"},"modified":"2024-05-15T11:51:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T11:51:49","slug":"mercore-seals-first-digital-bill-of-exchange-deal-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mercore-seals-first-digital-bill-of-exchange-deal-in-africa","title":{"rendered":"Mercore seals first digital bill of exchange deal in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Trade-focused fintech Mercore has completed its first digital bill of exchange transaction in Africa, facilitating sales of organic pesticides by a Kenyan producer to a buyer in Belgium.<\/p>\n

The counterparties generated and signed the digital bills using Mercore\u2019s digital platform, which is powered by trace:original, a solution developed by Swedish fintech Enigio. Mercore Capital, the company\u2019s financing arm, then purchased the resulting receivables.<\/p>\n

London-headquartered Mercore says it worked in partnership with Tradeable House Africa, a company focused on facilitating trade across the continent, while law firm Sullivan drafted the digital receivables finance agreement in keeping with the UK\u2019s Electronic Trade Documents Act (ETDA).<\/p>\n

Anthony Wadsworth-Hill, Mercore\u2019s chief operating officer, hopes that wider usage of digital trade payment instruments will lower the cost of financing, improve operational resilience and help close Africa\u2019s vast trade finance gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trade finance gap is typically exacerbated by high know-your-customer costs, high execution costs and complex structures,\u201d he tells GTR. \u201cBy doing this digitally, we can bring a lower cost of execution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercore chief financial officer David Stafford adds: \u201cThe impactful aspect of this was that within 24 hours of the Belgian buyer accepting the bill, we were able to disperse funds, where typically you would have to wait a few days at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tradeable House Africa\u2019s managing director, Isha Kasule, says the transaction is \u201ca monumental step towards digitalisation within the trade sphere in our region\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTradeable is excited by the growth potential that our collaboration with Mercore shall unlock,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

The transaction has been hailed by leading proponents of trade finance digitalisation, including Chris Southworth, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is more evidence of the practical benefits of trade digitalisation and particularly important to helping make trade with Africa cheaper, faster, simpler and more sustainable from which we all gain,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom all of the evidence we have seen to date, there are no downsides to digitalisation for any company wanting to better manage cash and be more efficient and profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Green, law commissioner for England and Wales, adds that the deal showcases the potential of the UK\u2019s ETDA \u2013 which gives digital trade documents the same legal footing as their paper-based equivalents \u2013 to \u201ctransform international trade by addressing the trade finance gap\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mercore\u2019s Wadsworth-Hill explains the company is \u201cseeking to be pioneers\u201d in taking the benefits of those reforms overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya is in the Commonwealth and has that underlying common law structure, and there is quite a lot of precedent as well as international conventions for English court judgments to be enforceable overseas, particularly in anglophone jurisdictions as many of those in the Commonwealth are,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s our rationale for taking it into this market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the deal is Mercore\u2019s first facility in Africa backed by a digital negotiable instrument, it says it has \u201cseveral more in the pipeline\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stafford says: \u201cAs a digital provider, and as one of the companies that is looking to be an early adopter of the digitisation of trade, we\u2019re always keen to use digital bills of exchange or promissory notes where there is a commercial rationale for doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe underlying trade structure we\u2019re looking to use is pretty standard and highly replicable for us as a business where execution can be completed electronically.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February last year, Mercore carried out what was believed to be the first digital bill of exchange transaction in the UK, facilitating sugar imports from Nicaragua. Again, digital documents were issued via trace:original, while financing was completed using an electronic payment undertaking.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Trade-focused fintech Mercore has completed its first digital bill of exchange transaction in Africa, facilitating sales of organic pesticides by a Kenyan producer to a buyer in Belgium. The counterparties generated and signed the digital bills using Mercore\u2019s digital platform, which is powered by trace:original, a solution developed by Swedish fintech Enigio. 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