The Professional Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (Apbef) of Senegal proceeded this morning, with the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Cooperation, to the signing of a framework agreement relating to the establishment of a financing mechanism to support the revival of the national economy. The said mechanism includes, according to the president of the Apbef, Mamadou Bocar Sy, two (02) counters of 150 billion CFA francs each for very small and medium-sized enterprises (TPME).

"Based on the shortcomings of the resilience mechanism, the agreement that we have just initialed has been rebuilt and co-constructed in a better developed and more ambitious framework with two (02) counters of 150 billion CFA francs each for VSEs Smes" , declared the president of the Apbef. For Mamadou Bocar Sy, the banks receive in this context deposits in cash and not remunerated to serve as collateral. It indicates in the same dynamic that they are called upon to take risks but specifies that they will, all the same, be accompanied by an elaborate guarantee mechanism and by the assistance of the Guarantee Fund for Priority Investments (Fongip).

Also, he hailed the commitment of his colleagues and their determination to remain at the service of the national economy in all its components despite the difficulties. According to him, the Covid-19 has shown that they can be flexible, pragmatic and responsive. On the strength of this, he invited his peers to become more committed to doing more and better for the recovery of the economy by improving communication around the device and taking care of the needs of their customers.

"But this, Mr. Minister (Amadou Hott Editor's note)", insists Mr. Sy, "will only be possible with their (customers) support themselves and their commitment with a clear definition of their needs and a hierarchy of their priorities, transparency in the reporting of their problems, in the information they provide and finally respect for commitments to allow them to lend to as many people as possible on the basis of the repayments made".

For his part, the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Cooperation says he remains convinced that this framework agreement takes into account the constraints of the banks but also is an incentive to support private stimulus investments with regard to the rate of interest, maturities and eligibility criteria.

In this sense, Amadou Hott indicated that the interest rates under this financing mechanism are at less than 5.5% and the maturities can go up to 10 years with a State guarantee between 60 to 70% for SMEs and 50% for large companies whose turnover is around FCfa 2 billion.