Morocco’s BCP Secures Funds to Upgrade Business Financing in West Africa
The Central People’s Bank of Morocco (BCP) has secured funds from Proparco and the African Development Bank, destined to upgrade its business financing in West Africa, mainly in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, where the bank is operating through its subsidiary Banque Atlantique.
BCP has thus signed Thursday in Casablanca a funding agreement with Proparco, the subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD), aimed at bolstering cooperation between the two parties and enhancing access to finance for BCP’s client companies, both in Morocco and in sub-Saharan Africa. These financings will accelerate the local development of these companies and contribute to the economic development of the countries where they are based.
Proparco and BCP intend thus to strengthen their cooperation through supporting the BCP Group and its subsidiaries in Africa. The financing that Proparco would provide to BCP or its subsidiaries would support financial inclusion in the broad sense of the term (banking, financial sector consolidation, financing of micro-enterprises and microfinance).
This funding will also help design innovative solutions and approaches to finance infrastructure projects, reinforce the capital base of BCP subsidiaries and support international trade activities of the group’s importing and exporting customers.
On Wednesday, the BCP benefited from a line of credit of €100 million that was approved by the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group.
This facility will enable BCP to strengthen its business financing activities in the sectors of agriculture, education, health and infrastructure in West Africa, mainly in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, the AfDB said in a press release.
The credit line will concretely contribute to improving the economic competitiveness of the countries concerned, generating public and export revenues and creating employment opportunities, particularly in labor-intensive sectors such as agriculture. It also promotes regional integration and the development of trade.
“Our partnership with the BCP will support Morocco’s South-South cooperation,” said Mohamed El Azizi, Director General of the African Development Bank for the North African Region.
“This mechanism will serve as a lever to strengthen production capacity and boost growth in West Africa, through the financing of private sector development”, the country manager of the Bank in Morocco, Leila Mokaddem, on her part said.
The half-century long partnership between Morocco and the AfDB totalled more than $10 billion in financial commitments to over 160 projects and programs in different sectors, including energy, water, transport, agriculture and social development.
