After forty years of supporting public investment, the Fonds Africain de Garantie et de Coopération Économique (FAGACE) is changing tack and now offers to guarantee SME loans. Its Managing Director, Fanta Coulibaly, talks to Jeune Afrique about this change of direction.
After fifteen years in the Ivorian banking sector, Fanta Coulibaly was appointed special advisor to Kaba Nialé, then Ivorian Minister of Economy and Finance, and then remained for a time advisor to her successor, Adama Koné. Since January 2017, she has been head of the African Guarantee and Economic Cooperation Fund (FAGACE). Created forty years ago and based in Cotonou, Benin, this fund brings together fourteen African states and is looking to a new approach.
Jeune Afrique: What is FAGACE’s new strategy?
Fanta Coulibaly: Fagace was born of the will of fourteen States: the eight UEMOA States, plus the Republic of Congo, Central Africa, Cameroon, Rwanda, Chad and Mauritania.
For forty years, this fund has focused on financing public investment, even though it began to open up to the private sector around ten years ago. Today, we are in version 2.0 of Fagace: in March, the Board of Governors, which brings together the fourteen Finance Ministers, decided to turn its attention to SMEs.
