The Central African Republic is preparing to take a key step in financing its private sector. Activation next of the National Guarantee Fund (FGN) aims to facilitate the access of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to bank credit, in a context marked by low financial inclusion and a chronic deficit of investments.

Presented on December 4, 2025 by the Minister Finance Minister, Hervé Ndoba, during an exchange with the resident representative of the World Bank, Guido Rurangwa, the FGN is designed as a tool for risk reduction for banks. With a registered capital of 10 billion of FCFA, including 3 billion FCFA contributed by the World Bank, the fund must partially cover the risks associated with business financing locals.

In a country where material guarantees are often lacking, access to credit remains a major obstacle for SMEs. The principle of the fund is simple but strategic: to pool part of the risk in order to encourage credit institutions to expand their loan portfolios. Targeted sectors include agriculture, trade and services, which are considered to be drivers of economic activity.

This initiative takes place in a constrained financial environment. According to Bloomfield Investment, the banking rate in CAR did not exceed 7% in 2021, while almost 90% of the population active worked in the informal sector. Under these conditions, only 22% SMEs access formal bank financing, according to the World Bank.

For banks, risk perception stay high. Security instability, weak guarantees and fragility of the economic fabric limits their ability to finance businesses. The FGN intends precisely to correct this imbalance, by sharing the risk between the State and the private financial sector.

Beyond access to credit, the fund is part of a wider strategy to support SMEs, which represent more than 90% of the country's formal businesses, according to the UN. Despite their weight economic, these companies remain poorly integrated into regional markets and vulnerable to economic shocks.

A lever to reinforce the fabric

In recent years, the authorities Central African women have initiated several reforms to improve the environment business. Among them are the reduction of the minimum capital for the business creation and measures to increase the participation of SMEs with public procurement.

In the short term, the commissioning of the Fund A national guarantee could loosen the credit crunch, support the emergence of a more robust entrepreneurial fabric and reorienting some of bank financing to productive sectors. In an economy under tension, this mechanism appears as an expected signal, where the stimulus passes above all through the vitality of SMEs.