The African Development Bank Group has signed off on a €25 million financing package for Cameroon’s Crédit Communautaire d’Afrique-Bank (CCA-Bank), aimed at expanding the bank’s trade finance capacity for small and medium-sized enterprises and other local firms.
The approval was granted during a Board meeting held on 1 December in Abidjan. The funding will be channelled through a Transaction Guarantee, a mechanism used by the African Development Bank Group to provide risk mitigation for eligible African banks engaged in trade finance operations.
According to Lamin Drammeh, Head of the Bank Group’s Trade Finance Division, the backing is expected to play a direct role in strengthening Cameroon’s economic activity. “The facility will support Cameroon’s economy by facilitating imports of equipment for the industrial, agro-industrial and telecommunications sectors. It will also enable the African Development Bank to provide up to a 100 percent guarantee to confirming banks, to facilitate the confirmation of letters of credit and other similar trade finance instruments issued by CCA-Bank for the benefit of SMEs in Cameroon,” he said.
Léandre Bassolé, Director General for the Central Africa region, noted that the decision aligns with the Bank’s wider strategy to step up engagement with the private sector in Cameroon. “It will strengthen CCA-Bank’s capacity to support the activities of SMEs, including those owned by women and young people, to boost the local productive sector, facilitate economic growth, and create and maintain thousands of jobs,” he added.
CCA-Bank’s Managing Director, Marguerite Fonkwen Atanga, welcomed the Bank Group’s first direct financing support to her institution. “We would like to express our gratitude to the African Development Bank Group for this important trade finance facility. This strategic partnership marks a major milestone for our institution and will significantly strengthen our capacity to support small and medium-sized enterprises, women entrepreneurs and start-ups in Cameroon and Africa,” she said.
