Ecobank Ghana, an affiliate of the Pan-African Banking Group, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and Proparco, AFD Group’s private sector financing arm have signed a ¢50 million partnership agreement to support Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs) recover swiftly from the effects of Covid-19.

The partnership, which is part of the Choose Africa and ARIZ Initiatives will pave way for Ecobank to offer loans at competitive interest rates to the MSMEs and create in excess of 50,000 jobs across the country.

Proparco and the Ecobank Group have a longstanding history of supporting the private sector in West Africa with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises.

Following an analysis of financing data researched by Ecobank, companies with less than 200 employees affected by the pandemic will be eligible to apply for loans with maturities ranging between 12 and 60 months under the Choose Africa Initiative. These loans could cumulatively account for up to three months of their turnovers for 2019.

This new Resilience component of the French Choose Africa initiative has been made possible, thanks to support from the French Government.

Launched in November 2020 in response to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EUR1billion Resilience component would bring assistance from the Choose Africa initiative supporting start-ups and MSMEs in Africa to a total disbursement of EUR 3.5billion. Since 2018, over EUR 2 billion of this amount has been deployed by the AFD Group under the French Choose Africa initiative.

Anne Sophie AVE, Ambassador of France to Ghana, commented that: “The French initiative Choose Africa launched in 2018, as well as its strengthening in 2020 in response to the crisis, testify to France's strong commitment to African start-ups and MSMEs. Ghanaian entrepreneurs have demonstrated their resilience throughout the crisis, they will play a fundamental role in the country’s development, thus creating jobs and improving people's access to essential goods and services.”

Ange Pascal KOUASSI, Proparco’s Country Representative for Ghana, said: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of African economies. The success of the Choose Africa initiative illustrates Proparco’s strong commitment to SMEs. We are happy to work with our partner Ecobank on the roll-out of our new initiatives specifically designed in response to the Covid-19 crisis.”

On his part, Mr. Daniel Sackey, Regional Executive for Anglophone West Africa and Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana said: "Our partnership with the AFD Group begun in 2015 when Ecobank signed onto the ARIZ initiative to increase access to finance for MSMEs and Start-ups in Ghana. This initiative has since contributed immensely towards unlocking more than One Hundred Million Ghana Cedis (¢100,000,000)on an annual basis in Term Loans to about a hundred (100) MSMEs within the Transport, Manufacturing, Agribusiness, ICT, Health, and Microfinance sectors across Ghana, and creating in excess of 20,000 jobs”.

Mr Sackey concluded that; “The Ecobank Group is indeed pleased to be signing onto the Choose Africa Resilience initiative with the AFD Group and Proparco today. This comes to complement our efforts at building capacity, increasing their access to market and providing tailored solutions to meet the specific needs of MSMEs. This is against the background that most MSMEs continue to evolve as consumer behaviour and engagements actively change and more people are accepting of the new ways of accessing goods and services, a positive fall out of COVID-19 pandemic.  As a Pan-African bank, we believe it is our responsibility to help MSMEs sustain and grow their businesses further and contribute to the economic and social development of our economies. To this end, our deepest appreciation goes to the AFD Group and Proparco for their immense support, and commitment to partner with Ecobank to build resilient and sustainable indigenous businesses in Ghana”.

This signing ceremony further strengthens the partnership existing between these institutions and their desire and commitment to promoting the growth and development of MSMEs, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.