At the African Financial Summit (AFIS 2024), held on 9 and 10 December in Casablanca, Proparco signed Trade Finance guarantees with three subsidiaries of Coris Bank International (CBI):
• €15 million with Coris Bank International Benin (CBI Benin)
• €10 million with Coris Bank International Togo (CBI Togo)
• €7 million with Coris Bank International Senegal (CBI Senegal)
Proparco’s Trade Finance programme, now joined by these three banks, aims to address the need for essential goods and equipment in economies heavily reliant on import trade to meet critical needs for both populations and businesses.
By guaranteeing the Trade Finance instruments issued by the three CBI subsidiaries and confirmed by corresponding banks—initial beneficiaries of the guarantee—Proparco offers a practical solution to the supply challenges faced by importers in Benin, Togo, and Senegal.
Through this initiative, Coris Bank International (CBI) and Proparco further strengthen the partnership initiated in 2021 with the signing of Trade Finance guarantees for CBI Côte d’Ivoire and CBI Burkina Faso. Founded in 2008, the Coris Group now boasts ten subsidiaries and branches across Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Benin, Niger, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Chad.
In Benin and Togo, these projects align with the Food & Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM), launched in 2022 by French President Emmanuel Macron alongside the European Union, the G7, and the African Union. FARM seeks to enhance food security in fragile countries by promoting local agrifood industries to reduce import dependence and encourage local and regional production.
By supporting SMEs through guarantees provided to the three banks, this initiative also contributes to the Choose Africa programme led by the AFD Group (Agence Française de Développement, Proparco, and Expertise France). Choose Africa supports African start-ups, microenterprises, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by financing and assisting them at various stages of growth, with the help of local partners supported by the Group.
“The Coris Group, strongly committed to fostering the emergence of African economies through active contributions to socio-economic development, actively supports all sectors of the economy with a particular focus on SMEs and SMIs to drive a dynamic transformation of the business ecosystem. We extend our gratitude to Proparco for the guarantee facilities available in this process,” said Diakarya OUATTARA, CEO of Coris Holding.
“We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Coris Bank International by granting three new Trade Finance guarantees to its subsidiaries in Benin, Togo, and Senegal,” stated Emmanuelle Riedel-Drouin, Director of Financing at Proparco. “These initiatives align perfectly with the ambition of our strategy, ‘Acting Together for Greater Impact,’ and fall within the mandate entrusted to us under the FARM initiative to strengthen food security in Africa by supporting private sector actors.”
These three projects are expected to positively impact food security, poverty reduction, the creation of decent jobs, and economic growth, thereby contributing to Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, and 8.