By granting an exceptional guarantee of one million euros to Union Internationale de Banques (UIB), Proparco confirms the strength of its partnership with this key player in the economic development of Tunisia. This support is part of the French Choose Africa initiative dedicated to to supporting start-ups, VSEs and SMEs in Africa.
Created in 1964, the Union Internationale de Banques (UIB) is today one of the main private banks in Tunisia, member of the Société Générale Group. It stands out for its commitment to very small businesses and SMEs, which is reflected in the implementation of dedicated financial products.
AFD Group has been supporting this commitment for several years, in particular through the granting of ARIZ guarantees. In 2018, Proparco had also granted a technical support envelope to enable UIB to strengthen its support to SMEs and their managers, in particular via the organization of dedicated training sessions for entrepreneurs in several Tunisian cities.
The one million euro (TND 3,250,000) portfolio guarantee granted today by Proparco will enable UIB to offer loans guaranteed at 80% by AFD Group to Tunisian small and medium-sized enterprises weakened by the crisis. This will enable UIB to strengthen the “exceptional covid-19 loans” offer set up by the bank at the beginning of the health crisis.
After examination of the requests for financing by UIB, companies of less than 250 people affected by the crisis will be able to be granted loans ranging from 12 to 60 months.
This loan offer, which is 80% guaranteed by AFD Group, is part of the new Resilience component of the French Choose Africa initiative and has been made possible thanks to the support of the French government. Launched in November 2020 in response to the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, this €1 billion Resilience component brings the Choose Africa initiative to €3.5 billion to support start-ups, VSEs and SMEs in Africa. To date, more than 2.5 billion euros have already been deployed by AFD Group in the framework of Choose Africa for the benefit of more than 26 000 MSMEs on the continent.
“Proparco is very pleased to strengthen its partnership with UIB through the granting of a Choose Africa Resilience guarantee. This guarantee proposed thanks to the support of the French government will help provide an appropriate response to the needs of Tunisian entrepreneurs affected by the crisis,” said Guillaume Barberousse, Head of the Banking and Financial Markets Division at Proparco.
For his part, Raoul Labbé de la Genardière, CEO of UIB said: “The signing of this new Choose Africa Resilience guarantee agreement with our partner Proparco is perfectly in line with UIB’s commitment to Tunisian companies since the beginning of the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have mobilized and will continue to mobilize all the necessary energies to be able to help our clients through this crisis and to relaunch their activities.”