Sankofa Corporation Limited — London, United Kingdom
We advise businesses, exporters, importers and project sponsors in Ghana and across West Africa on how to structure transactions and become credible counterparties before any conversation about money begins.
"The London–Accra corridor is real, underserved, and growing. Sankofa's mandate is to close the gap between a business's current position and the point at which capital becomes accessible through structure, not promises."
Sankofa Corporation is a London-based trade and transaction advisory practice operating across Ghana and West Africa. We work with petroleum importers, commodity exporters, agribusiness operators, infrastructure sponsors and businesses that have commercial momentum but face structural friction when approaching banks, lenders and counterparties.
Our mandate is narrow by design. We advise on structure, documentation, risk allocation and positioning. We guarantee no outcomes. What we guarantee is rigour.
We tell you what we see, including when a transaction is not viable. Honest assessment is part of the mandate, not a courtesy omitted under commercial pressure.
Every engagement begins with a diagnostic. Scope is defined in writing. Deliverables are specific and measurable.
We produce bank-grade output. Transaction readiness memoranda, information memoranda, pre-export finance structures and bankability assessments that capital providers can actually work with.
Our non-negotiable restrictions are published on every product sheet and embedded in every engagement. They are not constraints they are what allows us to maintain the independence that makes our advice worth having.
Each product is a defined advisory mandate with a specific scope, structure and set of deliverables. All work is governed by an agreed service level engagement before commencement.
We do not negotiate on process. These steps apply to every client, every product, without exception. They exist to protect both parties.
We identify the structural friction, the specific constraint preventing the business from becoming a credible counterparty with banks, buyers or investors. No obligation on either side.
A structured, investor-safe, non-confidential questionnaire covering the business snapshot, transaction need, risk constraints and engagement readiness. Returned within five days. Reviewed within 24 hours.
Formal engagement commences including scope, deliverables, and signed SLA.
Advisory work delivered in structured milestones with specific outputs at each stage.
Every mandate ends with a documented output, a client debrief, and a clear recommendation on the logical next step, whether that is a further phase, an independent path, or a referral.
London remains the pre-eminent global centre for trade finance structuring, correspondent banking relationships, and international commodity finance. Sankofa's expertise, combined with Ghanaian and West African market knowledge, positions it uniquely as a corridor intermediary.
Connecting Ghanaian and West African trade counterparties with London-based financial institutions, commodity traders, and structured finance providers. This is the institutional arbitrage that larger banks do not pursue at ticket sizes relevant to SMEs.
Profitable businesses with demonstrable cash flows routinely operate without access to formal trade finance. That structural market failure is Sankofa's operating terrain.
Priority relationships with leading international banks, regional banks, commodity funds and DFI's as referral and transaction partners.
Our practice is concentrated in Ghana and West Africa, with advisory anchored in London. We work with businesses that operate in transaction-intensive sectors where structure, documentation and counterparty positioning directly determine access to capital.
Primary operating geography. Ghana as core market with active pipeline across the sub-region.
Registered advisory base. International counterparty access.
From readiness advisory through to infrastructure bankability, a defined product architecture, not bespoke improvisation.
Every mandate begins with a structured diagnostic. No engagement is commenced without it.
"We occupy the space between a business's current position and the point at which capital becomes accessible, and we close that gap through structure, not promises."
The diagnostic is investor-safe, non-confidential and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. It costs nothing. It commits neither party. It gives us both the information needed to determine whether a mandate is viable before any money or time is spent.
Request Phase 0 DiagnosticFor mandate enquiries, partnership discussions and Phase 0 diagnostic requests.
All enquiries receive an initial response within two business days. A Phase 0 Diagnostic is issued with every substantive engagement.