Across Africa, businesses face significant barriers when trying to access trade finance. An estimated $120 billion in viable African trade goes unfinanced each year, including roughly $7 billion in Ghana alone.
Much of this gap stems from structural challenges in the global trade finance system. Correspondent banking networks have contracted over the past two decades, while traditional trade finance instruments such as letters of credit remain largely paper-based and difficult for smaller firms to access.
For many small and medium-sized exporters in West Africa, this creates a major barrier to participating in global markets.
At the same time, new legal frameworks, financial technologies and digital trade standards are creating opportunities to rethink how trade finance systems operate across borders.
About NeoFinGo
NeoFingo is an emerging initiative exploring how digital public infrastructure for trade finance could connect financial institutions, fintech platforms and exporters across jurisdictions. The protocol proposes a shared digital framework that could: digitise trade documentation and compliance processes; enable programmable digital letters of credit for SMEs; support interoperable financial messaging standards such as ISO 20022; provide transparent governance and audit trails for cross-border trade transactions; allow fintech platforms, banks and service providers to integrate through open APIs. The initiative draws on recent developments including the UK Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, Ghana’s fintech regulatory environment, and emerging digital trade infrastructure linked to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The NeoFinGo online workshop
This workshop will introduce the NeoFingo digital framework and the architecture that could underpin a UK–Ghana digital trade finance corridor, while providing an opportunity for participants to help shape its development. The discussion will explore what technical infrastructure would be required to support such a corridor in practice, how digital trade documentation and compliance systems could operate effectively across jurisdictions, and how fintech innovation might expand access to trade finance for small and medium-sized exporters. Participants will also consider the standards and governance arrangements needed to ensure trust, interoperability and regulatory alignment across the system.
The session is intended as a practical discussion among practitioners, helping refine the framework before the wider policy and industry discussions at the NeoFingo forum later in the week. It is designed for specialists working across digital finance, trade infrastructure and cross-border regulation. Participants with experience in UK–Africa trade, fintech innovation, digital trade systems and financial regulation are particularly encouraged to attend.
Insights from the workshop will inform the NeoFingo forum on 26 March 2026, a hybrid event linking ODI Global in London with the Bank of Ghana headquarters in Accra. The forum will convene policymakers, financial institutions, fintech leaders and development partners to discuss the opportunities of a UK–Ghana Digital Trade Finance Corridor.
Click here for more information on how you can join our London-Accra event.