In less than a decade, the group has grown in Burkina and throughout West Africa. Often criticized, is its strategy based on financing small businesses precisely the key to its success? Decryption. The tipping went unnoticed. Hardly a few amateurs of financial tables have realized this when consulting the latest report of the Banking Commission of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) published last November. At the end of 2017, Coris Bank International (CBI) took 7th place in the ranking of the main banking groups operating in the WAEMU, easily overtaking BNP Paribas and winning 5.3% of the sector's assets, against 4, 1% for its French competitor, or 140 basis points gained in a single year. The group created in 2008 by Idrissa Nassa from the ashes of Financière du Burkina, a credit institution then in serious difficulty, is now on the heels of NSIA Banque, of the Ivorian tycoon Jean Kacou Diagou (5.5% of the regional balance sheet, after the acquisition of the active in French-speaking West Africa of the Nigerian Diamond Bank). In less than a decade, without fanfare, from his headquarters on Kwamé-Nkrumah Avenue in Ouagadougou, Idrissa Nassa has extended the web of Coris Bank International, from Burkina Faso to Benin, to Côte d'Ivoire, to Mali, in Senegal and Togo. Between 2010 and 2018, its balance sheet increased fivefold, and its revenues quadrupled, to 1.75 billion and 86.2 million euros respectively. CBI has earned an average of 23.5 million euros in profits per year since 2010. To the delight of investors at the Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM) in Abidjan – 1.25 million shares of CBI offered to the sale in November 2016 were sold in six hours – and of its institutional shareholders such as BOAD and the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) of Burkina. “Sound and robust governance combined with hierarchical and functional reorganization allows greater efficiency in decision-making and the conduct of operations, underlines the rating agency Wara in a recent report. This should allow CBI to consider the construction of a real banking group in the Uemoa region”. But what is CBI's strategy? Contrary to those of certain leaders in the sector who are also betting on large companies or launching major transformation projects – Ade Ayeyemi's digital ambition for Ecobank, the Moroccan-sub-Saharan positioning driven by Mohamed el-Kettani with Attijariwafa Bank or that , broader, extending towards the Mediterranean and Asia desired by Othman Benjelloun for BMCE Bank of Africa – that of Idrissa Nassa is concentrated on SMEs. As if, more colonel than general, more skilful tactician than staff strategist, the Burkinabè financier had remained, basically, the entrepreneur and merchant that he was in the 1990s and 2000s, operating in fits and starts, expanding the size of Coris step by step, at the pace of its needs and following the natural flow of exchanges – often informal – between Burkina and its neighbors in the sub-region. Some competitors are quick to denounce the limits of this approach, insisting on the perils of informality. "Our international standards do not allow us to target the type of clientele that Coris Bank finances in the region", recently decided one of the West African executives of the French Societe Generale. This clientele (SMEs, VSEs and traders) is “naturally risky”, notes for its part the Wara agency, which warns about the liquidity profiles and the gap in maturity between the resources and the uses of Coris Bank International. In 2018, its receivables portfolio represented 92% of its customer deposit base and 56% of its balance sheet. However, the bank's refinancing profile is dominated by short-term deposits, the proportion of which is increasing (61% in 2018). But it is not impossible that this risky bet is precisely the source of the success of the regional bank. “What makes Coris famous with the informal sector of Burkina Faso is the vision of its founder, focused on speed in decision-making and above all on risk-taking in the financing of SMEs and very small businesses. companies that other banks are reluctant to support”, slips a banker from Ouagadougou, a fine connoisseur of the sector. In any case, Coris Bank intends to continue its momentum. According to information from Jeune Afrique, it will launch next September, in Ouagadougou, the activities of Coris Méso Finance. At the crossroads between microfinance and traditional banking, this subsidiary intends to support the development of very small and medium-sized enterprises (TPME). It has a capital of 1 billion CFA francs (1.5 million euros) fully subscribed by Coris Holding – which oversees the activities of the financial group, controlled by Idrissa Nassa. A decision that is essential, while the share of SMEs in the group's loan portfolio has reached 60%. With a specialized structure, Coris can pursue its growth in this segment by limiting the risk for the rest of its traditional banking activity and by mobilizing fewer provisions and capital. “With a desire to create more proximity and to serve SMEs, our core business, we felt it necessary to create an entity specializing in their financing. However, these represent around 90% of businesses in Africa and thus constitute the greatest potential in our market, explains Idrissa Nassa to JA. The most complex aspect is risk control, yet we have already demonstrated our know-how and our ability to finance such firms. An analysis shared by Jean-Luc Konan, founder of Cofina. The West African specialist in mesofinance, with 158 billion CFA francs on the balance sheet in 2018, is also preparing to start its activities in Burkina during this month of August. “Coris is a group that is developing well in our region. It was able to adapt to the environment because its founder was first and foremost an entrepreneur with perfect knowledge of the market before being a banker. He knows the immediate needs of the clientele,” explains his Ivorian colleague. According to him, “the arrival of new players is a means of developing this market, just as the multiplicity of telephone operators has allowed in the telecom sector”. In Burkina, this segment already has a major player with Baobab (ex-Microcred), whose outstanding loans in Africa reached 850 million euros in 2017. With mesofinance, Idrissa Nassa adds a new string to the bow of the group. Even if "60% to 65% of the balance sheet comes from banking", according to Diakarya Ouattara, boss of CBI Burkina, he has already diversified into other financial professions (insurance, stock market, asset management , etc.) and even beyond (see opposite). In ten years, in Burkina Faso, CBI has become the leading bank in terms of balance sheet size (with 19.6% market share) and in terms of customer jobs (19.4%). At the same time, the banking group continues to be a major player in financing the Burkinabè economy. Thus, the group's net customer loans grew by 18% over one year, to reach CFAF 637.7 billion, while outstanding deposits stood at CFAF 700 billion, i.e. growth of 13% over a year. To support this increase, the bank opened seven new branches in Burkina in 2018, relocated two others to new premises and created two new branches in its branches in Benin and Senegal. The mesofinance market also participates in counterbalancing the weight of banking activity in Burkina Faso, while the country of honest men is not immune to upheavals - such as the revolution that led to the start and end of 2014, of President Blaise Compaoré – and remains under the threat of jihadist terrorism. Despite its expansion in the Uemoa space, CBI remains a domestic bank, which places it "in a situation of vulnerability vis-à-vis Burkina's macroeconomic issues, in an uncertain security and social context", warns Wara. Questioned by JA, the management of the banking group ensures that this predominance is intended to decline, if not disappear. “We expect, assures Idrissa Nassa, a gradual decline in the weight of Burkina in the group with the rise of the subsidiaries”, in particular Ivorian, Malian and Togolese. In addition, the group indicates that it has transformed branches in Benin and Senegal into subsidiaries and has invested 10 billion CFA francs in each of these markets. Coris is also keeping Niger in its sights, eight years after an unsuccessful first attempt. The takeover of 35% of the capital of the International Bank for Africa-Niger, its first acquisition outside Burkina Faso's borders, had finally come to an end due to the opposition of employees and private shareholders, forcing Coris to sell its shares to Niamey. However, the banking group intends, according to our information, to invest more than 5 billion CFA francs in this country, and expects activities to start before the end of 2019. For the company's staff ( read p. 72-73), this establishment should serve as a springboard to complete its establishment in the Uemoa zone. This would constitute, moreover, a prelude to a future African adventure. If one of its managers assured JA, a few years ago, that an establishment outside the sub-region would only be considered in the medium term, it seems that this eventuality is closer than expected. “Almost all of our subsidiaries have achieved their initial objectives. This allows us to consider an exit outside Uemoa. I can tell you that in 2019 we will have an experience”, announces Idrissa Nassa, without however providing more details on these new ambitions. Some relatives of the Burkinabè leader, noting his numerous trips in recent months, designate among the priority targets a trifecta made up of Guinea, Ghana and even Gabon. Uncertainty remains as to the form of this establishment: by the acquisition of a subsidiary or by a creation in greenfield? As shown by the episode in Niger, Coris Bank is struggling to impose itself during the arm wrestling for the recovery of African assets. Last year, Idrissa Nassa finally gave up taking over the Commercial Bank of Burkina, owned equally by Ouagadougou and Libya, through the Libyan Foreign Bank. In 2017, the entrepreneur also threw in the towel for the takeover of the Banque de l'habitat du Burkina Faso, which finally fell into the hands of Mahamadou Bonkoungou, boss of the construction group Ebomaf, who recapitalized it up to of CFAF 23 billion and renamed it IB Bank. With the opening by BNP Paribas of a “strategic reflection” with a view to selling its stake in the capital of its retail banks in Burkina, Mali and Guinea, Idrissa Nassa had positioned itself for the takeover of the three subsidiaries. But he finally gave up while the identity of the buyer is not yet known. “These withdrawals are to be interpreted as a cautious approach and a desire to encourage our [Burkinabe] compatriots to get into banking to create a strong pool together,” insists Idrissa Nassa. Constrained in mergers and acquisitions, the Burkinabè group is more successful in terms of its partnerships and greenfields. Coris Holding has indeed concluded a framework cooperation agreement with the Cameroonian banking group Afriland First Bank of the Cameroonian financier Paul Fokam. “The challenge is to pool our capacities, including our payment systems, and to exchange information. The agreement provides that we participate in the co-financing of major projects, ”explains to Coris Holding. If it is not an establishment, this alliance allows Coris to set foot in Central Africa, far from Ouagadougou, where the adventure started.

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