COFINA Gabon is pleased to announce that it has obtained a medium- term financing of 4 billion FCFA (€ 6 million) from the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC) based in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
COFINA Gabon, a subsidiary of the COFINA Group, the pan-African leader in mesofinance, has been operating in Gabon since 2016.
COFINA Gabon will use this funding exclusively for the benefit of Gabonese SMEs. Indeed, the objective is to support these SMEs in growing their activities.
This fundraising takes place against a backdrop of a lack of funding for SMEs on the continent and their ever-increasing need to access financial resources. It will allow, in a context of economic crisis exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, to finance the development of income-generating activities for the benefit of populations without access to banking services and thus participate in the diversification of the economy Gabonese.
Mr. Yvan N’na Mboma, Chief Executive Officer of COFINA Gabon said: « I am pleased to have obtained this financing which is necessary for the further growth of COFINA Gabon. It will allow us to continue to meet the needs of Gabonese SMEs at a very difficult time because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus. »
Jean-Luc Konan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the COFINA Group, said: « This financing is a testimony of BDEAC’s support and confidence in the COFINA Group model which places SMEs at the heart of its target. In Africa, SMEs account for 90% of private sector companies and 33% of GDP. However, only 6.4% of African SMEs have access to bank financing, while they are the main providers of wealth for our African economies by creating more than half of the jobs. Mesofinance that we are developing is therefore an efficient response to the new paradigm of emerging African markets. »
ACT AFRIQUE and ARIES Investissements acted as co-Financial Advisors of COFINA Gabon in this transaction.
About COFINA Group
Founded in 2013, COFINA Group is the first African financial institution dedicated to mesofinance, the « missing link » between traditional microfinance and traditional banking, which offers the possibility for SMEs (90% of the continent’s companies in the private sector) to access credit more easily.
Present in eight African countries (Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Senegal, and soon Togo) and with a representative office in Paris dedicated to the African diaspora, COFINA has already financed more than 84,000 business projects, 48% of which are led by women. COFINA has established itself in recent years as the benchmark for financing small and medium-sized enterprises in West and Central Africa. COFINA has taken on the challenge of reducing the financial divide which afflicts a large part of the new African middle class. With more than 1,300 employees, COFINA manages a portfolio of more than 175,000 customers, spread over its eight countries. As of December 31, 2019, the group posted a total balance sheet of 212 billion CFA francs (€ 323 million).
About COFINA Gabon
COFINA Gabon, formerly known as Credit Solidaire du Gabon (CSG), is the Gabonese subsidiary of the COFINA Group, and has received a second-category microfinance institution trading license obtained in 2016.
COFINA Gabon currently has more than 7,000 clients managed by more than 100 employees deployed in a network of 6 agencies.
KAPITALAFRIK.COM
June 18, 2020
