The meeting of the fourth edition of La Finance S'Engage (FSE) with the theme: "support, key to financing SMEs" took place on the morning of Thursday, November 21, at the Maison de l'Entreprise du Plateau (Abidjan), under the chairmanship of the Minister for the Promotion of SMEs, Félix Anoblé.

Beyond the initiative deployed throughout the year with monitoring of bank financing commitments, skills-building and financial education activities for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), the FSE aims to be a major annual meeting that excels in mobilizing leading financing players, banks, funds, microfinance, as well as public institutions and SMEs.

Eminent personalities such as Aliou Maiga, Director of West and Central Africa IFC (International Finance Corporation), were able to give life to this event which was an opportunity to show the results obtained by the initiative in 2019, which reached more than 2,500 SMEs, through key programs such as the Financial Education Program and the follow-up to financing.

According to the head of the Promotion of SMEs, in the context of the week of financial inclusion, the choice of the theme: "accompaniment, key to the financing of SMEs", orders financial actors to succeed in the bet of access to finance for SMEs.

In this logic, he announced on the part of the Government excellent news of tax relief and tax measures that will be implemented before the end of the year. “We can clearly see that in four years you have succeeded in making the banks move. Let's dare by taking the risks of financing initiatives that can change and transform the economy by creating added value,” declared Minister Félix Anoblé.

Although Côte d'Ivoire's growth figures are encouraging, the impact on SMEs, which nevertheless are the main providers of wealth, jobs and the development of local populations, is slow to be felt. A reality that is materialized by a limited growth of SMEs.

The major obstacle encountered by these SMEs in their path to growth is undeniably access to financing. A constraint essentially due to the wall of confidence which slows down the banks, the lack of information of the actors of SME on the offers of the financial institutions and the lack of control of the procedures of granting of credit.

This is why the recommendations of this fourth edition, which were delivered by Désirée Fouqueray, Dg Atalian Services, essentially focused on information, support, commitment and collaboration. "It is with the commitment of all in a partnership that we will be able to implement its recommendations", she wished.

At the end of this day which preceded the gala dinner of the awards, the president of the SME development and financing commission of the CGECI, in his closing remarks, was delighted with the support in this adventure from the State of Côte d' Ivoire, the Central Bank and the IFC.

"We are aware that we can make things happen and this initiative is bearing fruit," he said.

Rightly, he mentioned that in June 2019, the financing of SMEs increased by 24% taking into account the figures of the Central Bank and 16% of the figures of microfinance, and this is 1566 billion CFA francs in the direction of SMEs from the Central Bank. "The banks have understood they are reviewing their way of thinking and collaborating", concluded Daouda Coulibaly, CEO of the SIB.