The historical operator for French education abroad has inaugurated its training center which will contribute to the development of innovative education in West Africa. It has been set up with financing allocated to the Mission Laïque Française in February 2020 by AFD Group via its subsidiary PROPARCO

Geographical coverage: West Africa

Proparco's regional offices for West Africa cover: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Proparco is granting a loan to the French Groupe Duval, led by Eric Duval, for the renovation and operation of a 6,000 m2 office tower in the Plateau business district of Abidjan.

On November 25, 2021, the two institutions formalized their partnership in Lomé with a 40 million euro loan from Proparco to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known by its French acronym, UEMOA) Caisse Régionale de Refinancement Hypothécaire (CRRH-UEMOA), a Regional Mortgage Refinancing Fund, for the refinancing of affordable housing loans granted by WAEMU banks to low-income populations in the zone.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) along with Proparco and French Public Investment Bank to advocate the promotion of Africa’s creative economy to the world

As part of the SME Ventures Forum, which is taking place on 15 and 16 March in Paris, AFD today signed an agreement to invest USD 7 million in the Oasis Africa Fund (OAF). This fund invests in SMEs in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire that help to improve access to essential goods for vulnerable sections of the population.

Support for African SMEs is central to Société Générale Group’s strategy. In 2018, the Group started deploying “Push SME”, its mechanism to support SMEs in Africa, for a period of four years. As part of this strategy, the subsidiary of Société Générale in Côte d’Ivoire (SGCI) aims to play an active role in building a sector of successful SMEs able to drive economic growth in the country. Mr. Assane KAH, SME Market Manager at Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire, tells us all about it.

This is the story of Cissé Abdoul Aziz, a scientist who discovered his entrepreneurial spirit. He tells the story of the creation of his company, Afribacom, which employs 30 permanent staff, and why he turned to Cofina, a partner of Choose Africa, for financial support. At the height of the Covid-19 crisis, Cofina also supported Afribacom.

On the occasion of the 3rd edition of the Finance in Common Summit (FICS), Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Proparco and Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire signed two portfolio guarantees, ARIZ and EURIZ, for a total amount of FCFA 5.5 billion (equivalent to € 8.4 million).

These guarantees will enable Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire to accelerate its financing of Very Small and Medium Enterprises (VSEs) in the country, especially those owned or managed by women as part of its initiative in favor of women entrepreneurship, "Ellever".

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.

During the visit to Côte d’Ivoire by Mr. Franck Riester, the French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, PROPARCO and the financial institutions ADVANS-CI, ECOBANK-CI and Société Ivoirienne de Banque (SIB) today signed new MoUs to support Ivorian companies affected by the crisis. These partnerships will allow the deployment of the Choose Africa Resilience guarantee set up in response to the crisis.

On the occasion of the first visit to Côte d'Ivoire of Proparco's new CEO Françoise Lombard, Proparco granted 6 portfolio guarantees to Société Générale Côte d'Ivoire, Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire and Advans Côte d'Ivoire amounting to a total of 30.7 million euros, i.e. more than 19 billion CFA francs. These guarantees will enable the three financial institutions to increase their financing activity for MSMEs in the country.

After being imagined and incubated by the AFD Campus du Développement, the Social & Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC) will be piloted over the next three years by I&P Conseil and its partners - African Management Institute, ScaleChanger and StartupBRICS - to accelerate its deployment, particularly in Africa. This hybrid coaching program dedicated to entrepreneurs in their scale up stage and producing societal impacts will be organized by the consortium with the close support of the AFD and the programme's historical partners. This year's Covid-19 crisis shows that our societies must take responsibility for environmental and social inclusion issues. We need to rapidly develop capacities for resilience and societal innovation, and to do this we need innovative social entrepreneurs more than ever.

Therefore, for its 2020 edition, the SIBC is committed to working alongside entrepreneurs to strengthen their capacities for growth and resilience in the face of an unprecedented economic and health crisis, notably through the construction of an ad hoc "SOS Covid" course, available in English and French, for all candidates to the programme as well as the existing community. This 4th edition, still focused on societal innovations, will once again highlight the themes of environmental responsibility, technical innovations to serve the most vulnerable through e-health or ed-tech.

PROPARCO has signed today a EUR 30m loan to Azito Energie S.A. This financing will provide an effective response to Côte d’Ivoire’s growing electricity needs via the expansion of the Azito power plant. The project confirms AFD Group’s continued support to Côte d’Ivoire’s power sector and is part of a broader approach to assist the country’s energy transition.

Mr. Aymeric VILLEBRUN, Managing Director of SGCI, HE Mr. Gilles HUBERSON, French Ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire, and Mrs Fatoumata SISSOKO-SY, Proparco's Regional Director for West Africa, signed a partnership agreement at the "Maison de la PME" of Société Générale Côte d'Ivoire to support and finance professionals and SMEs in Côte d'Ivoire.