Africa has to find ways to maintain its trade-driven growth even as protectionism rises in traditional markets, president of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) said Friday in Kigali.

As Asian developing economies narrowed their technological gap and became more competitive, many advanced economies had "resorted to subtle 'anti-market' policies to contain rising external imbalances," said Benedict Oramah.

These results together with recent global financial and economic shocks, caused global and African trade to slow significantly in 2015 and 2016, he said, adding that Africa's economic activities also slowed with real GDP growth rate falling below 3 percent for the first time in about two decades.

"It is unlikely that the tendency towards protectionism would wane in the near term given the political price that leaders in major developed economies can pay if they ignore it," the president said during an event for Afreximbank's annual general meeting.

"Trade restrictive and protectionism measures have been on the rise recently, most notably in the United States and Europe, which had previously been the leaders of free markets, advocating the free movement of capital, goods and labor," Rwanda's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Claver Gatete said Friday at another event for Afreximbank annual general meeting.

"The implementation of protectionist policies aimed at limiting trade among countries has expanded rapidly over the last few years, at the same time when African countries are taking steps to accelerate the process of structural transformation of their economies with a view to diversifying exports and integrating into the global economy," said the minister.

These growing protectionist measures may have profound implications for Africa by limiting access to export markets and undermining the demand for the continent's exports and its efforts to integrate into the global value chains, he said.

Africa has all the ingredients required for a big economic push and to accelerate African trade, according to Oramah.

"Relative low intra-African trade provides room for growth in a context of contraction of global trade and creeping protectionism."

To accelerate trade, Africa now has the political will, diverse natural resources and abundant labor, pan-African and sub-regional trade finance banks, fairly developed financial system and a number of emerged African companies that create manufacturing capacities and fostering the emergence of regional and continental supply chains, said the Afreximbank president.

Recognizing that challenges remain, Oramah said the lack of knowledge of the African continent and limited access to trade information among African businesses remain major constraints to cross-border trade.

Adequate and sustainable finance remains the main constraint to trade promotion in Africa, according to Gatete.

In addition, tightening of global financial regulations due to the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 have led to the withdrawal of some international financial institutions from the continent's trade finance space, said the minister, adding that Africa's current trade financing gap is estimated at about 120 billion U.S. dollars.

Foreign reserves held by the African central banks are largely invested or domiciled offshore, rendering them unavailable to fund viable trade, project and developmental needs of African, Gatete said.

According to him, foreign reserves of the central banks grew rapidly over the past 20 years rising from 42 billion dollars in 1995 to a peak of 550 billion dollars in 2013.

The Afreximbank's events will conclude on July 1 with the formal annual general meeting of the bank's shareholders.

More than 100 speakers, academics, and African and global trade development experts are discussing how to unlock Africa's trade potential, with insights and solutions for accelerating trade diversification.

Afreximbank was established in 1993 by the African governments, African private and institutional investors as well as non-African financial institutions and private investors for the purpose of financing, promoting and expanding intra- and extra-African trade.