The West African Development Bank has approved three new major financing operations. The most important is a partnership with Cofina, in order to support the development of SMEs with an environmental and social impact.
The Board of Directors of BOAD (West African Development Bank) finalized three financing operations in support of the industrial fabric of the sub-region. As part of the partnership with Cofina, the Ivorian subsidiary of the mesofinance group will receive assistance of 5 billion CFA francs (7.6 million euros) over seven years.
This amount is dedicated to the financing of SMEs; part of this funding is more specifically dedicated to projects to improve access to electricity. In West Africa and the Sahel, innovative companies will be able to install stand-alone solar kits and off-grid systems.
This support for Cofina is nothing new. The company is a partner of several financing institutions, such as Proparco (French development agency) or the Dutch bank FMO. Their partnerships were intensified in May 2020, with the aim of supporting small businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and fostering the emergence of the African private sector. For its part, BOAD has just validated a stake in the capital of Proparco, for 1.86 billion CFA francs (2.8 million euros).
“It is a great source of pride for the Cofina group to sign a partnership of this dimension with a prestigious institution such as BOAD”, declares Jean-Luc Konan, CEO of the group. “It testifies to our place as the African leader in mesofinance, committed to the development of our entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
In addition to the support to Cofina and the acquisition of a stake in Proparco’s capital, BOAD has just finalized a short-term loan in favor of the Burkinabè National Hydrocarbons Company (Sonabhy). This involves partially participating in the financing of its operating needs for the import and marketing of hydrocarbons in Burkina Faso.
The objective of the operation is to strengthen the short-term financial resources of the company, to enable it to adequately meet the needs of its customers by importing hydrocarbons. This operation involves 20 billion CFA francs (30.5 million euros).
Strategic partnership for Cofina in Gabon!
This brings the total of the three new operations approved by BOAD to 26.86 billion CFA francs. The institution is keen to keep its meter running: the total of its commitments, all operations combined, amounts to 6 254.86 billion CFA francs (95.35 billion euros), since the start of its operational activities, in 1976.
In addition, the institution chaired by Serge Ekué approved the restructuring of the loan for the establishment of a cardboard packaging manufacturing unit by the company SCS Malienne de Cartonnerie (SCS) SA in Mali, for an amount of 2.3 billion CFA francs (3.5 million euros).
For its part, Cofina is operationalizing its strategic partnership in Gabon, with the NGO Ogooé Labs. The two partners will jointly finance the StartX241 program designed by this incubator. It will create ten Tech start-ups, recruit and train twenty Gabonese entrepreneurs in start-up management. This will ultimately promote the integration of nearly forty young Gabonese. The operation involves 250 million CFA francs.
Launched at the end of fall 2020, the StartX241 program aims to accelerate the distribution of products from young French-speaking technology companies to territories where their innovations are not present.
For the founder of Ogooué Labs, “this agreement marks the beginning of a strategic partnership for Gabon which is launched in the digital transition”. Sylvère Boussamba judges that “Cofina’s commitment shows its perfect understanding of the issues and challenges around the digital economy in Gabon and Africa”.
About twenty young Gabonese will be trained in digital entrepreneurship before being recruited into the ten start-ups being created in the country. This is thanks to strategic partnerships with Hemera, a Bordeaux accelerator specializing in supporting start-ups with high potential.
