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.
In Cameroon, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a difficult economic environment, linked to the country’s current crises and major difficulties in accessing credit.
Signed with the Cameroonian subsidiary of Advans, an international network of microfinance institutions that the AFD Group has been supporting for many years, this operation will enable it to develop its entrepreneurial support activity and target very small and medium-sized businesses in particularly fragile regions of the country, as well as SMEs with a high developmental impact (health, education, youth, women, agriculture, green energy, etc).
Support for entrepreneurship and crisis areas, two of AFD Group’s priorities
This support to Advans Cameroon is the first operation to be carried out thanks to the new ARIZ TPE MINKA product, a portfolio guarantee implemented by Proparco for financial institutions to enable them to finance MSMEs in crisis areas in Africa or the Middle East. This product benefits from the AFD Group’s Minka Peace and Resilience Fund.
This operation contributes to AFD Group’s commitment to strengthen its intervention in fragile countries and crisis contexts. Support for businesses, and in particular SMEs, in crisis areas is an important factor of resilience, as illustrated in the issue of Proparco’s magazine Private Sector and Development devoted to companies operating in contexts of vulnerability and crisis.
This operation also participates in the Choose Africa initiative launched by the AFD Group in March 2019.