The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso and senior African financiers met major Asian banks in Bangkok, in talks that organisers say have moved towards a financing deal worth more than $1 billion.
Singapore-based Global Markets, which co-convened the closed-door West Africa–Asia Capital Dialogue with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), said it is working with ICBC, MUFG, Nomura and the African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI) to structure the transaction. It is targeting an executable agreement within three to six months.
No financing agreement has been announced. Global Markets said any deal would still require due diligence, commercial agreement and institutional approvals. It did not name the prospective borrowers.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings on October 15.
Asia accounts for more than 40 per cent of Africa’s trade, according to the organisers, yet little Asian capital finances African businesses and infrastructure.
What Cardoso told lenders
Cardoso said Nigeria had made “difficult changes” to its foreign-exchange market and banking system. The CBN has unified its FX market arrangements and cleared about $7 billion in verified outstanding FX obligations, according to the organisers’ account of his remarks. It also has a renminbi currency-swap arrangement with China and a framework with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support local-currency financing.
“Investors need to know the rules, understand the risks and have confidence that they can move their money,” he said. “We want Asian institutions to look again at Nigeria.”
EBID: bring borrowers and lenders together.
EBID Vice President Mory Soumahoro, speaking for President George Agyekum Donkor, said West Africa has projects needing finance, and Asian banks have the capital. EBID, he said, can identify credible borrowers, prepare transactions and help manage risk.
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Afreximbank: the gap is capital, not opportunity.
Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development, speaking for President George Elombi, said Africa’s challenge is moving capital efficiently into productive sectors.
Afreximbank cited an annual African trade finance gap of $74 billion to $100 billion. It said it raised more than $800 million from Asian markets in 2025 through a Panda bond in China and a Samurai bond in Japan.
It also said the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) had expanded to more than 30 countries and over 200 financial institutions by September 2026. Awani called for links between PAPSS and Asia’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and for co-investment in industrial and infrastructure projects.
ATIDI: insure what can be insured
ATIDI Chief Executive Manuel Moses said many African deals fail because lenders are uneasy about risks they do not fully understand. “Some of those risks can be insured. Others can be shared or managed through better transaction structures,” he said.
Global Markets: ‘I want deals’
Global Markets founder and CEO K. Duker said the firm would be judged on results. “I don’t want another conference. I want deals. We will judge Bangkok by what gets financed,” he said.
The first three months will focus on preparing the proposed transaction for institutional decisions and lining up further opportunities, the firm said.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Group CEO of the Global Finance & Technology Network, said technology now exists to make payments faster and cheaper, but only if institutions work together to use it.
Also taking part were Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); Allen Forlemu of the IFC; and the Bank of Ghana’s First Deputy Governor Zakari Mumuni.
What it means
For banks and corporates: If the talks produce a deal, it would open a new channel of foreign-currency financing for African borrowers, at a time when Afreximbank says shrinking correspondent banking relationships and FX shortages are choking trade finance.
For Nigerian lenders and large corporates, the practical benefit would be access to a deeper pool of Asian bank balance sheets, including renminbi liquidity, which the CBN’s swap arrangement with China is meant to support. But the borrowers have not been named, and the organisers have not said whether Nigerian institutions are among them. Until that is clear, no bank or company should assume it stands to benefit.
For policymakers: The Bangkok session shows how the CBN is positioning its reforms. Cardoso’s message to Asian lenders was that Nigeria has unified its FX market, cleared about $7 billion in verified FX obligations and tightened banking oversight, so investors can have confidence their money can move. That is a direct response to the repatriation and liquidity concerns that have weighed on foreign appetite for Nigerian assets. It also carries a test. Asian banks will judge the reforms by how smoothly funds can be repatriated in practice, not by the central bank’s own account of what it has done. Cardoso also said he wants to hear what still stands in the way, which suggests officials accept that perception gaps remain.
For investors: The $1 billion figure should be read as a target, not a commitment. Global Markets says it is coordinating talks with ICBC, MUFG, Nomura and ATIDI, but it has also said that due diligence, commercial agreement and institutional approvals are still required. The three-to-six-month timeline is the organiser’s own ambition. The more useful signals to watch are whether borrowers are named, whether any of the banks confirm a mandate, and whether ATIDI’s credit and political risk cover is built into the structure. Moses said risk insurance is the tool that can turn lender discomfort into financing.
For the wider region: Several of the participating institutions are pushing for deeper payment links between Africa and Asia. Afreximbank wants PAPSS connected to China’s CIPS, arguing that this would cut transaction costs and reduce dependence on hard currencies. If that happens, it would change how African and Asian firms settle trade, but it would take regulatory agreement on both sides and is a longer project than the proposed deal. For now, the immediate test is simpler: whether a conversation in Bangkok produces a signed transaction. Duker, the organiser, framed it the same way, saying the meeting will be judged by “what gets financed”.
Sunday Michael Ogwu is a Nigerian journalist and editor of Pinnacle Daily. He is known for his work in business and economic reporting. He has held editorial roles in prominent Nigerian media outlets, where he has focused on economic policy, financial markets, and developmental issues affecting Nigeria and Africa more broadly.