The Bank of Kigali (BK GROUP Pls) and the French Development Agency (AFD), have signed a credit line worth €20 million to finance small and medium enterprises in agro business, ICT and renewable energy in Rwanda.
The deal was signed on Thursday between BK’s CEO, Dr Karusisi and AFD’s Director General, Rioux Rémy who had come to Rwanda to look for projects the agency can suppor.
This agreement includes $20 million and one technical assistance agreement of €300000 to encourage the financing of small and medium enterprises in the country.
BK says that the credit line and technical assistance will enable it to lend to very small, small and medium enterprises on a long-term basis and at an interesting rate across all sectors of the Rwandese economy, thanks to AFD’s long-term maturity and affordability.
“This partnership will improve the access to finance for VSMEs and SMEs who comprise a substantial part of our private sector. On doing so, we are shifting with them towards a higher productivity in value addition to make Rwanda regionally and internationally competitive,” BK’s CEO said.
Meanwhile, France will be supporting many Rwandan projects in the near future. Rémy also said that French investors are encouraged to invest in the Rwanda.
He noted that this credit line is not the first one, but the second after the one signed eight years ago
“We supported Banque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR) and I&M Bank, and we are still among the shareholders of the Rwanda Development Bank (BRD). This second credit line, 8 years after the first one, marks the success of our collaboration with Bank of Kigali,” he said.
Rémy added that he is pleased that AFD contributes to the development of the SME sector in Rwanda and participates alongside BK in the dynamism of the Rwandan economy.
Meanwhile, the State Minister of Finance in charge of Economic Planning in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), Dr Claudine Uwera, said that Rwanda expects a lot from her cooperation with France in the days to come.
“We really look forward to many benefits as it has been explained. They will support us in many development areas such as education, infrastructure, agriculture, but we will also work together. There are many projects that we have here starting from the ones in which we have been already cooperating. So, it is a cooperation that we all benefit from, and that is why we all think it must continue,” she noted.
The Agence Française de Developpement (AFD), is a French organization that funds and supports poor countries mostly in Africa, Middle East and Latin America.
Rémy says that this year, that his organization will dish out €4 billion (over Rwf4000 billion) in development programs in various countries of the world, and half of the funding was allocated for African countries.
The Express News
