Under a new partnership between the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and the Benin subsidiary of the commercial bank Ecobank, several small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Benin will benefit from loans totaling 1.6 billion CFA francs (2 million 439 million euros). This support will help finance initiatives to strengthen the green economy and women's empowerment in this West African country.
It is an initiative that should accelerate sustainable development in Benin. The African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is providing a portfolio guarantee line totaling 1.6 billion CFA francs (over 2.4 million euros) to Ecobank’s Benin subsidiary. This guarantee will allow the financing of the green economy through small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“The aim is to alleviate the difficulties linked to the lack of guarantees encountered by SMEs and which constitute an obstacle to the financing of their activities while promoting the development of female leadership in the private sector,” explains Lazare Noulekou, Ecobank’s Managing Director in Benin.
Accelerating sustainable development
The agreement between Ecobank and AGF is mainly focused on the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which includes gender equality and women’s empowerment. In this sense, the initiative of the two partners will build on the AFAWA program (Affirmative Action for Women in Africa), an initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) that aims to release loans worth a total of 2 billion dollars (1245 billion CFA francs) for the financing of SMEs managed mainly by women in Africa.
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To achieve this by 2030, the AGF-Ecobank partnership adds to the Beninese authorities’ initiatives to boost economic growth, job creation and reduce poverty levels. In 2018, the country led by Patrice Talon launched the National Development Program (NDP) through which a number of investments are being made in technological innovation, reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in this case in the electricity and transport sector.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
