The COFINA Group announces the signing of a strategic partnership with the West African Development Bank (BOAD), in order to support SMEs with a strong environmental and social impact in their development in the WAEMU zone over the next five years.

The first part of this partnership consists of a refinancing line for the Ivorian subsidiary of the Cofina Group in the amount of 5 billion CFA francs over seven years. This amount is dedicated to financing SMEs with a strong environmental and social impact, with part of this financing reserved for projects aimed at improving access to electricity in West Africa and the Sahel region through the deployment stand-alone solar kits and off-grid systems.

Cofina is a privileged partner of many financing and development institutions wishing to contribute to the financing of VSEs, SMEs and Entrepreneurs. In 2020, the Group also entered into partnerships with the Dutch development bank FMO and PROPARCO, a subsidiary of the AFD Group, as part of their objectives to support the emergence of the African private sector.

Since the beginning of the economic crisis linked to Covid-19, the Cofina Group has positioned itself as a key player in African economic recovery, supporting States and donors in the distribution of credit to companies facing difficulties. . With a core clientele made up of SMEs, the Cofina Group is among the best placed to financially irrigate the real economy with its knowledge of the ecosystems of the 8 countries where it is present in West and Central Africa.

“It is a source of great pride for the Cofina Group to sign a partnership of this dimension with a prestigious institution such as BOAD, declares Jean-Luc Konan, Chairman and CEO of the institution. This demonstrates our position as the African leader in mesofinance, committed to the development of our entrepreneurial ecosystem”.

About the Cofina Group

Founded in 2013, the COFINA Group is the first African financial institution dedicated to mesofinance, the "missing link" between microfinance and traditional banking which offers the possibility for African SMEs (90% of private companies on the continent) to access easier on credit. Present in eight African countries (Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Senegal, Togo) and with a representative office in Paris dedicated to the diaspora, COFINA has already financed more than 85,000 business projects, 48% of which are led by women entrepreneurs. COFINA has established itself in recent years as the reference in terms of financing small and medium-sized enterprises in West and Central Africa. COFINA has set itself the challenge of reducing the financial divide suffered by a large part of the new African middle class. With more than 1,300 employees, COFINA manages a portfolio of more than 175,000 clients and 85,000 financed business projects, spread over its eight countries. As of December 31, 2019, the institution had a total balance sheet of 212 billion CFA francs.