Luanda- The Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) and Banco Caixa Geral Angola (BCGA) bank signed Thursday, in Luanda, a cooperation agreement to facilitate micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to have access to financing in other regions of the country.
The initiative, which is part of the Commercial Agriculture Development Project (PDAC), is managed by the Angolan Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and is financed by funds from the World Bank (WB) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD), which provided a total amount of 230 million dollars, of which 130 million dollars from WB and 100 million dollars from AFD.
Besides the financial side, the initiative also covers specialized technical support to producers.
The project, which forecasts a harvest of 4.5 or 5 tons of corn per hectare, aims especially at encouraging producers to increase production and support the country's food security.
With the signing of the agreement, the PDAC will have the financial support of the Caixa Angola bank, that is available to fund agricultural initiatives which are part of this programme.
At the time, the bank also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The respective agreement aims to facilitate access to financing for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as individual entrepreneurs and cooperatives devoted to the production of corn, beans, soybeans, coffee, eggs, and chicken, under the PDAC.
With that, there are now four national banks available to finance PDAC projects, namely Banco de Fomento Angola bank (BFA), Banco Africano de Investimentos bank (BAI), Sol bank and now Caixa Angola bank.
On his turn, the Chairman of BCGA's Executive Committee, João Plácido Pires, stated that the memorandum is part of the bank's commitment to support Angola's economic growth through initiatives by companies that contribute to national production.
He assured that the banking institution has a "plafond" or an "unlimited" financial portfolio to finance all the projects that fall under the PDAC.
The director of the Studies, Planning and Statistics Office (GEPE), from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Anderson Jerónimo, stressed that BCGA's initiative will allow to expand the investment and increase the number of operators in the agricultural field.
In the view of Luzayadio Simba, CEO of the Credit Guarantee Fund, the new Memorandum will bring new financing opportunities for companies that will generate jobs and reinforce the diversification of the economy.
PDAC covers other regions
In the first phase the programme covered a corridor, called A, which benefits entrepreneurs from the provinces of Luanda, Bengo, Kwanza Norte, and Malanje, who continue to produce.
Under the agreement signed, corridor B was created, which covers the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Huambo, Bié and the northern part of Huíla, regions in which Caixa Angola bank will operate within PDAC framework.
"What we verified is that there was a geographical limitation, which meant that we had a reduced number of companies requesting support from the Fund in terms of guarantees", informed Luzayadio Simba.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the project, in 2020, BFA, BAI and Banco Sol have financed 2.6 billion kwanzas, and the FGC has issued 50 public guarantees worth 1.7 billion kwanzas, in the framework of the PDAC. QCB/NE/MRA/jmc
