Trade and Development Bank

The Trade and Development Bank is a trade and development finance institution operating across eastern and southern Africa, established on 6 November 1985 under the Treaty for the Establishment of the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern African States, and it serves as the financial arm of COMESA, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. It has 22 African member states, 19 of them also members of COMESA, and admitted China in 2000 as its first member from outside the region; it maintains dual headquarters in Bujumbura, Burundi and Ebene, Mauritius, along with regional offices including a hub in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a distinct institution from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, which serves an unrelated regional membership around the Black Sea.