The year 2020 is rich in lessons at Cofina Group. The African leader in mesofinance has continued its fundraising strategy by focusing on partnerships with DFI's ,Development Finance Institutions) such as Proparco, FMO, and others. "These major players need structures like Cofina to  directly reach SMEs and the world of microfinance. We offer them the means to reach the mass while creating impact," explains Serge Massamba Ndombele,  Director of Strategy and Institutional Clients at Cofina. 

In the eyes of this strategy expert, an additional USD 2.4 trillion in public and private investment each year in sustainable development sectors will be needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including USD 630 billion per year to achieve the SDGs in Africa. It is therefore  necessary to set up a strategic partnership between the various financial actors to truly create an ecosystem that would promote sustainable development  mainly through SMEs.

In addition to mobilizing funds, Cofina is also working on their structuring in order to finance the actors of the real economy over long maturities. "We want to favor productive investment with our counterparts, because it conditions the ability to develop activities and the maintenance of employment. Thanks to our latest line of credit with a maturity of seven years, obtained from BOAD, we have structured the SME offer on productive investments over the longer term. This is a strong  signal from our strategic partner BOAD to make its mark on the long-term development of SMEs.

  With 100,000 projects financed over the last 6 years for an outstanding amount of  500 billion CFA francs (just under 1 billion dollars), Cofina has demonstrated the strength of its model in a continent where more than 80% of companies  are SMEs and which has the highest speed. demographic and urban development of human history. "Take the case of Senegal, a country of 16 million people. Every year, 350,000 children are born and about 600,000 people leave the rural world for the cities. This necessarily creates important challenges but also opportunities. It is therefore necessary to multiply the efforts of funding actors to support young people who want to seize the emerging opportunities of these challenges, "continues Serge Massamba Ndombele, very aware of the challenges of a continent in transformation.

Cofina has positioned  itself at the top of microfinance  and below banks. "We are faster than the latter", with an average credit of around 5 million.

Like the financial players, Cofina has been confronted with  this year 2020, a year of resilience, explains the financial expert. "We have demonstrated our ability  to protect  our teams (1,300 employees), to protect our clients' assets and help them better cope with this crisis, by allowing them to have a renegotiated schedule, for example. "This year pushes us to see the business differently and to accelerate the CSR dimension in the execution of our strategy."

For 2021, Serge Massamba Ndombele recommends that the continent's economic actors reassess their strategies. "The great shock of 2020, marked by the interruption of supply chains and the shutdown of activities, forces us to have a cold analysis, clinical, as honest as possible, of the reality we face and the choices we have to make.

For Cofina's Director of Strategy and Institutional Clients, it is necessary to observe and analyze the value chains of the different target sectors of the ecosystem : agribusiness, energy, infrastructure, etc., select the customers most anchored in this value chain, while asking three fundamental questions: What unique value do we bring to these customers?  What quality of service? And how do we deliver this unique value?

Clearly, says Serge Massamba Ndombele, at the dawn of the new year ahead, "we must select a pipeline of viable projects, with a high CSR impact to finance while keeping our strategic objectives and values".