The 4th edition of the forum La Finance s'engage (Fse 2019) will be held on November 21 at the headquarters of the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d'Ivoire (Cgeci), with the theme "Support, key to financing SMEs “, according to the president of the Commission for the development of SMEs and financing of the Cgeci, Daouda Coulibaly. He gave the information during the official launch ceremony of the event - combined with that of the 2019 Funding Awards - which was held on October 17 at the Maison de l'entreprise, in Plateau. Daouda Coulibaly indicated that the forum will once again bring together key players in the financial and entrepreneurial ecosystem around the financing of SMEs. "This year, we have intensified our actions towards SMEs, after the first 3 years focused on mobilizing supply players", explained Daouda Coulibaly. On the occasion, he made it known that from 19, the first year, the number of institutions involved rose to 33 in 2017, then to 40 in 2018. According to the president of the SME Development and Financing Commission, 1,000 Sme players will be reached through thematic workshops at the end of the 2019 edition, 500 of them initiated into financial education. Economic operators and project leaders from two cities in the interior of the country (Korhogo and Abengourou) will benefit from training and supervision, according to him. Regarding the 2019 Funding Awards, Daouda Coulibaly revealed that three prizes will be awarded. For his part, the West Africa director of ES Partners, Teddy Roux, indicated that it was at the end of June 2017 that 74% of the 1276 billion FCfa of commitments made in 2016 by financial players - on a need estimated at 3574 billion FCfa to be made available for the financing of SMEs in 2016 - were achieved at the end of June 2017.