Are trade finance issues affecting exports in sub-Saharan Africa?

Studies show that between February 2009 and January 2011, few medium and large scale firms in the export oriented sectors faced any problems with respect to the availability of trade finance.
The question is what accounted for this? The first reason accounting for this is the nature of trading relationships. Firms generally have well-established relationships with customers, and inter-company credit sustains trade.
In some cases, transactions are conducted on open account terms. Exporters are, in effect, providing trade credit to their customers, but they have built up their financial resources to cover the gap between shipment and payment and do not rely on banks for trade financing.
In other cases, customers provide advances to their suppliers. In the case of garment companies, there is greater reliance on financial instruments such as letters of credit, but most firms relied on the parent companies to provide trade finance and, with a small number of exceptions, its availability was unchanged.
The second reason is the resilience of the domestic banking system. Firms reported that credit in general is available from domestic banks as long as firms showed themselves to be creditworthy. Horticulture firms are considered good risks by local banks, so they did not have problems accessing finance.
The financial crisis has had visible impacts, such as notable declines in remittances, but the capacity of banks to finance companies and trade had not been affected.
These reasons do not show that the global financial crisis has had no impact on exporters in developing countries. Rather, the impact is very uneven.
First, sub-Saharan Africa appears to have been less affected, so far, by trade finance problems than other regions.
Second, there is evidence from Africa that restrictions on credit in the domestic market are hitting small traders and cooperatives that do not have the business linkages needed to access inter-company credit. To the extent that there is some credit rationing, the marginal firms are hit first.
Thirdly, the African exporters were clearly affected by other issues arising from the global financial crisis, particularly declining demand for garments and exchange-rate volatility for horticulture exporters targeting the UK market.
The conclusion to be drawn is that the impact of the global crisis on developing country exporters is highly differentiated by region, by sector, and by type of firm.
Responding to the new challenges requires carefully targeted support. Broadly targeted support to increase lending capacity in the banking system in both importing and exporting countries will not necessarily reach the firms that are in most need.
Firms with established exporting records that have repeat transactions with a range of established customers are more likely to obtain what bank finance is available and more likely to give and receive trade credit than other firms. Difficulties in obtaining trade finance are more likely to affect small firms and new entrants that do not have established relationships with their banks and with their customers.