Financing SMEs : African Development Bank Proposes New Method

Officials of the African Development Bank (AfDB) are on a mission to Cameroon to explore ways of implementing a new method of financing Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs). Led by the Country Director, Solomane Kone, the team was at the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft on May 21, 2019.

Solomane Kone told reporters shortly after meeting with Minister Achille Bassilekin III and his team, that they reviewed measures by government to support SMEs. This, he said, would help them identify areas of priority when implementing a new programme known as “SMEs Africa,” endowed with 150 million US dollars (circa FCFA 88 billion).

“We want to reinforce direct support to SMEs. Our mission is to ensure things are done correctly. We have been helping them through the public sector, but this time around we want to help them directly through the private sector. We want to enable financial institutions to provide special lines of credit and guarantees, among others. We also want to provide technical assistance,” said he. 

Minister Achille Bassilekin III, on his part, said government had established a platform with the agency in charge of small and medium size enterprises and realised that a group of local financial institutions are i...