More than two months after the eruption of the first cases tested positive for Covid-19 in Africa, the risks are both economic and social. But for the most vulnerable, whether resellers or traders, farmers and producers, very small and medium-sized enterprises or craftsmen, all players in the informal economy and the real economy, the impacts are corrosive. And even more in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)

How then to prepare them for a founding resilience of a new era to save the African economic fabric while making it denser? To respond to this, the Think & do Tank Team RM, faithful to its vocation as a laboratory of ideas and actions, is organizing an international webinar on the Zoom application on May 26, 27 and 28, 2020.

“There is an urgent need to protect the most vulnerable people and businesses. Create a special framework of resilience mechanisms. It would be a question of considering the well-organized generalization of food banks to which it is necessary to associate health and hygiene directives, economic incentive measures of deferral of taxes, wage subsidies especially in the companies of great utility, etc. As well as a temporary adjustment of maturities and credit guarantees and loan terms in general", indicated Reckya Madougou, the promoter of the Think & do Tank Team RM, initiator of the webinar in partnership with Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire, the Confederation of West African Financial Institutions and the Louis G. Lamothe Foundation.

A high-level bilingual meeting, this seminar aims to propose solutions for resilience and resistance to the shocks generated by this pandemic. Above all, it relies on the need to support these players in the real economy through support for Microfinance Institutions, mesofinance and banks. About thirty actors from the economic elite of the African continent, its diaspora and its friends, namely experts in inclusive finance and development mechanisms, government actors, entrepreneurs, bosses of multinationals are expected to attend.

Among others, Lionel Zinsou, former Prime Minister of Benin, Reckya Madougou, former Minister and International Expert / Inclusive Finance and Development Mechanism, Paul Harry Aithnard, Regional Director Ecobank UEMOA., Laurent Lamothe, former Haitian Prime Minister, Claude Joseph, Ally Coulibally, Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, respectively Minister of Foreign Affairs of Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon, Diéné Kéita, Minister of Cooperation and African Integration Guinea, Souleymane Diarrassouba, Minister of Trade and Côte d'Ivoire, Jean Van Wetter, Managing Director of Enabel, the Belgian Development Agency, Douiri Ismaïl, Deputy Managing Director Attijariwafabank, Xavier Michon, Deputy Executive Secretary of UN Capital Development Fund, James Claude CEO, Global voice group

African and Renaissance Diaspora Network (ARDN) , Stefan Nalletamby, Acting Vice-President, in charge of the private sector, infrastructure and industrialization, African Development Bank Group Mr. Oumar Tatam LY, Special Advisor to the Governor BCEAO, Mariam Djibo, Managing Director of ADVANS Côte d'Ivoire, Azaratou Sondo, President of the Federation of Professional Associations of DFS, UEMOA, Bangoura Adama Cisse, President of CFAAD (Cooperative of Amazon women for agriculture and Development) and National Coordinator from Leader Women Of Africa and Sewa AGBODJAN, Senior System Analyst. Innov Care promoter.



But in addition to identifying and listing appropriate and targeted solutions for the benefit of MFIs/SFDs in the face of the pandemic, a roadmap will be put in place with concrete actions and deadlines that will result from the webinars. It will also be an opportunity to propose, thanks to the participation of young start-upers / entrepreneurs, innovative ideas for the development of start-ups. The latter will thus have the opportunity to establish contacts with decision-makers and business angels.