Proparco has renewed its partnership with Société Générale Cameroun through an ARIZ portfolio guarantee of XAF 13 billion (€20 million) to support Cameroon's SMEs in their efforts to build a sustainable and resilient economy.

Cameroun is one of the first countries to benefit from loans guaranteed at 80% by AFD Group, made possible thanks to the resources specifically allocated by the French State in favor of MSMEs affected by the crisis in Africa. The financing will be distributed by Société Générale Cameroun.

Proparco grants a €15 million Trade Finance guarantee to Afriland First Bank. This first partnership between the two institutions will support the financing of imports in Cameroon.

Proparco, the subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) dedicated to the private sector, has granted Advans Cameroun an ARIZ TPE portfolio guarantee of 1.3 billion CFA francs (equivalent to 2 million euros). This will enable the two partners to share the risks associated with the credit activity. This guarantee is part of a long-standing partnership between the microfinance institution and Proparco. It will enable Advans Cameroun to strengthen its efforts on behalf of Cameroon's smallest businesses and farms.

Geographical coverage: Central Africa

Proparco has been operating in Central Africa since 2003. Its regional offices for Central Africa and Nigeria were first located in Douala (Cameroon) and then Lagos (Nigeria) up until 2010. In 2011, the Douala offices were reopened so Proparco could be closer to the economic actors of the francophone region, and thereby have a better coverage of the CEMAC countries (Cameroon, Gabon, the Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Chad), as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The Nachtigal hydroelectric dam project in Cameroon received the Global Multilateral Deal of the Year award from Thomson Reuters - Project Finance International (PFI) on February 6. The AFD Group, which granted €150 million to the project, and Proparco in particular, arranger of the debt of European development banks, played a major role in this operation.

To meet the needs of MSMEs affected by the crisis on the African continent, Proparco has set up an exceptional guarantee to cover part of the financing that financial institutions can grant them. Société Générale, a long-standing partner of the AFD Group and a key player in private sector financing in Africa, is the first financial institution to partner with Proparco to deploy this mechanism.

This guarantee, made possible thanks to the support of the French government, enables Société Générale's subsidiaries on the African continent to amplify their support for entrepreneurs. Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Senegal are the first countries to benefit from this loan offer which is 80% guaranteed by the AFD Group.

The signing of a partnership between GICAM and AFD Group will enable the work undertaken since January 2020 to continue within the framework of the Good Corporate Governance Initiative. The Code of Good Corporate Governance will notably aim to promote a business environment that is favourable to investment.

The partnership signed today concerns the granting by Proparco of two portfolio guarantees to Société Générale Cameroun for a total of 20 million euros (more than XAF 13,000,000,000). The risk-sharing scheme proposed by Proparco will enable the bank to increase its SME financing activity.

Like many cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon (4 million inhabitants), is experiencing rapid population growth, especially among the middle class, and a strong urban transformation. Changes in consumer habits and the increase in purchasing power are giving rise to new needs for which a formal, modern and diversified offer is only just beginning to emerge.

First operation carried out thanks to the new ARIZ TPE MINKA product, the portfolio guarantee arranged by Proparco will enable Advans Cameroon to increase the financing of SMEs in a particularly difficult economic context.

Open dumping of waste presents a real threat to the environment and to human health and is commonplace in developing countries. Constrained by budget pressures, towns and cities in the southern hemisphere are struggling to deal with the proliferation of municipal solid waste. Global production has practically doubled over the past ten years and is expected to reach 2.5 billion tonnes per year in 2025 as a result of the combined effect of urban development and changes in consumption patterns.

Proparco has just signed a financing agreement with Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée au Cameroun S.A. (ACEP Cameroun, or Cameroon Private Enterprise Credit Agency), a member of the pan-African microfinance network ACEP International. The local currency loan of 2bn CFA francs (equal to €3m) will go to support the expansion of ACEP Cameroun’s work in Cameroon, with SMEs in the countryside as primary targets.

To help Cameroon handle the major challenge posed by waste management, SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE CAMEROUN, ECOBANK and BICEC have just granted a loan – backed up by a guarantee provided by PROPARCO – to HYSACAM that will help renew its fleet of over 200 trucks in order to improve waste collection services in cities throughout the country.

HYSACAM is Cameroon’s number one private waste management contractor. It handles waste management services in 17 cities throughout the country. It collects over 1.5 million tonnes of waste a year or 4,000 tonnes a day. HYSACAM employs 4,000 people and has a fleet of several hundred trucks. In October 2017, PROPARCO is providing a guarantee for 11.025 billion CFA francs (XAF) (€16.81 million), to cover the loan granted by three local banks to Hysacam. This will help renew its fleet of over 200 trucks in order to improve waste collection services in cities throughout the country.

Proparco has signed, on behalf of AFD Group, a EUR 150m loan to Nachtigal Hydro Power Company (NHPC) to finance the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a 420 MW run-of-river hydropower plant on the Nachtigal site, in Cameroon. This power plant will eventually supply almost 30% of the country’s electricity production.