Ecobank, Proparco sign a €10m trade finance guarantee for African SMEs

Proparco and Ecobank Group are reaffirming their commitment to supporting the supply of essential products in Africa. They are reinforcing their historic partnership through the integration of the Chadian subsidiary with a €10 million facility into the trade finance programme.

On the first day of AFIS (Africa Financial Summit 2025), Ecobank Group and Proparco signed a €10 million trade finance guarantee facility for Ecobank Chad. This will facilitate imports of raw materials essential for creating added value in the country.

This programme addresses supply needs not covered by the local market and is part of the Food & Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM) initiative launched in 2022 by France, together with the European Union, the G7, and the African Union. Its objective is to strengthen food security in the most vulnerable countries.

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This guarantee is also part of the Choose Africa programme run by the AFD Group (Agence Française de Développement, Proparco and Expertise France), which provides financing solutions to small African businesses (start-ups, micro-enterprises and MSMEs), supporting them through the various stages of their growth, via local partners backed by the AFD Group.

Jeremy Awori, Ecobank Group CEO, said: “This renewed partnership with Proparco reflects our shared commitment to strengthening the economic resilience of Chad and the wider region, contributing to the implementation of Chad’s new National Development Plan. By facilitating access to essential raw materials, we are supporting local industrialisation, food security, and value creation on the continent. Using the combined expertise of our pan-African network and Ecobank International in France, we will continue to support our customers by facilitating trade and strengthening risk management, to build sustainable growth”.

Djalal Khimdjee, Proparco deputy Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are very pleased to welcome Ecobank Chad to the Trade Finance programme that we have co-developed with Ecobank Group since 2018. This new partnership will benefit local businesses, enabling them to import raw materials and become part of the international value chain in order to better meet the needs of local communities. This transaction brings the total volume of Trade Finance guarantees granted to the Ecobank Group since 2018 to €125 million”.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.