With the aim of strengthening the availability of finance for the trade economy in Mauritania and supporting imports of essential goods with a key player in the sector, which offers a large A range of financial services to its customers, the Bank for Commerce and Industry (BCI) Mauritania and Proparco are committed to concluding a partnership.

PROPARCO has granted a guarantee package in the amount of 12 million dollars to enable BCI Mauritania to strengthen its import financing activity, mainly in functioning of the economy. BCI Mauritania was founded in 1999 and over the years has become one of the leading banks in its market. It has issued Trade Finance instruments for a total amount of USD 12 M, with a guarantee from the AFD group of up to 100% thanks to its 2-year maturity facility. Its plan is to encourage foreign correspondent banks to expand their Trade Finance operations with it and its local customers, thus facilitating the import of essential goods, including agricultural foodstuffs and medical and industrial equipment.

With regard to its partnership with Proparco, Emmanuel Haye, Africa manager of Proparco's Financial Institutions and Inclusion Division, believes that “this transaction will thus make it possible to Support BCI Mauritania in an essential activity for the country, financing imports, in a context of significant increase in commodity prices.”

PROPARCO is a subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement group (AFD Group) dedicated to the private sector and which has been working for more than 40 years to promote sustainable development in economic, social and environmental matters.