Thanks to their investment in AB Bank Zambia, AFD and Proparco will support the only bank financing SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs in the country.
FISEA, an investment and support fund owned by AFD and advised by Proparco, recently invested €1.8 million (ZMW 25 million) in AB Bank Zambia’s capital increase.
This operation will help the bank increase its support to micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs and open new branches in the country, some of which will serve rural areas.
The bank’s activity mostly focuses on sectors where entrepreneurs are ubiquitous, such as wholesale and retail trades (28%), transport, logistics and communication (20%), catering (16%) and community services and services to individuals (12%). This operation will also help create or maintain 621 jobs in the bank.
This operation in is line with AFD Group’s Choose Africa initiative, which ambitions to dedicate €2.5 billion to supporting 10,000 African SMEs and start-ups by 2022.