The BCEAO, ICD Ink MoU in favour of SME-SMI in member countries of the WAEMU

JEDDAH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, January 25, 2016/ -- Mr. Tiémoko Meyliet KONE, Governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and Mr. Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO & General Manager of the Islamic Corporation for the Development Private Sector (ICD) (http://www.ICD-idb.com), signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation.

This MoU provides a framework for partnership and establishes the guidelines and the terms of cooperation between the ICD and the BCEAO to support financing for SMEs / SMIs in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

Considering that the promotion of SMEs / SMIs is an important lever for the fight against poverty and for the emergence of the economies of Member Countries of the UEMOA, the Council of Ministers of the Union adopted, at its meeting of September 29, 2015, the "mechanism to support financing for SMEs / SMIs in the WAEMU" whose implementation monitoring was entrusted to the BCEAO.

By virtue of this MoU, ICD provides support for the operationalization of the support mechanism to finance for SMEs SMIs in the WAEMU by a direct participation up to USD 30 million to the the establishment of a Sharia compliant investment fund for SMEs/ SMIs.

In addition, in coordination with BCEAO, ICD at best effort basis, will attract other investors in order to increase the size of the fund up to USD 100 million.

On its part, the BCEAO is responsible for the implementation of the support system to finance SMEs / SMIs in the WAEMU. It supports the following:

•providing incentives for credit institutions to finance SME / SMI;

•conducting studies on support and coaching structures in favor of SMEs / SMIs and on the impact of the support scheme to finance SMEs / SMIs in the WAEMU;

•promoting complementary instruments tailored to the financing of SMEs / SMIs (credit bureau, leasing, venture capital, etc.).
Both institutions acknowledged the importance of SME/SMI in the economic growth in general and the private sector development in particular in the member countries of the WAEMU. They emphasized their common will to work towards strengthening their cooperation, including the financing of the economies of the Union.

On this occasion, Mr. Khaled Al Aboodi, CEO & General Manager of the ICD, that the MoU will strengthen ICD’s support towards the regional economies of WAEMU while providing knowledge and mobilizing resources to support SMEs / SMIs.

On his part, Mr. Tiémoko Meyliet KONE, the Governor of BCEAO, welcomed this new partnership, which should contribute to the promotion of SMEs / SMIs in the member countries of WAEMU. This promotion is important for economic transformation of the zone. It is expected that the partnership will foster economic growth and create jobs manly for young people.

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD).