Madame Minatou Fanta COULIBALY-KONE, Managing Director of the Fonds Africain de Garantie et de Coopération Économique (FAGACE), was received late in the morning of this Thursday, October 4, 2018 by Minister KEREKOU in charge of SMEs.
Madam Managing Director of FAGACE taking the floor, reported on the preparations and progress of the launch conference of the Salon Africain de la Garantie (SAGA), of which the Fund is a partner, and whose theme is: “The challenges of a permanent platform for exchanges between guarantors, banks and SMEs” tomorrow Friday, October 5, 2018 at 10am at the Golden Tulip as a prelude to the Salon scheduled for February 2019.
Ms. COULIBALY-KONE explained that the aim of this launch conference, and of the Salon to be held in February 2019, is to mobilize all the players in the ecosysteme to facilitate the financing of SMEs, so that they can make a greater contribution to the development of our countries.
Modeste Tihounté KEREKOU hailed this welcome initiative and reminded the audience that the development of our nations’ economies depends on the development of our SMEs, which represent over 90% of all businesses and are major players in the fight against poverty and youth unemployment. However, they are struggling to gain access to bank financing due to the combined and perverse effects of unfavorable factors, including their difficulty in mobilizing their own resources, the lack of transparency in their accounting and governance, the reluctance of banks to finance them, and the unsuitability of accompanying financial instruments, all of which are aggravated by the prudential measures of the Basel 1 and 2 agreements.
Despite these difficulties, the Minister for SMEs reminded her host that guarantee funds such as FAGACE, which she heads, have the mandate and mission of facilitating access to bank financing for SMEs. It is their responsibility, through relevant initiatives, to make themselves better known, their missions and their intervention mechanisms, which remain at the very least poorly understood by both prescribers and SMEs.
In conclusion, he expressed the hope that FAGACE and APIGA would play their leadership role more effectively than in the past, and assured Madame COULIBALY-KONE, Managing Director of FAGACE, that the ministerial department in charge of SMEs would spare no effort in supporting and accompanying this initiative.
