Choose Africa 2: French Development Agency announces €200M financing for Togo and three other countries in West Africa

Economic governance
Friday, 06 October 2023 18:39
Choose Africa 2: French Development Agency announces €200M financing for Togo and three other countries in West Africa

(Togo First) - Togo and three other West African countries will share €200 million which they will receive as part of the second phase of Agence Française de Développement's (AFD) Choose Africa initiative. According to the AFD, the money will target the informal sector, as well as SMEs and startups. It will run from 2024 to 2027. 

The funds should serve in setting up public mechanisms to support entrepreneurship, with grants and sovereign loans. Overall, the program aims to support 22,500 African startups, and micro, small, and medium-size businesses (MSMEs), both formal and informal. They will receive loans and online training.

At the same time, Proparco, a member of the AFD Group, will be responsible for implementing support to the African private sector, while Bpifrance will support French and African companies looking to expand their activities in Africa. 

The Choose Africa 2 initiative comes after a successful first phase, Choose Africa 1, launched in 2018 in Ouagadougou by French President Emmanuel Macron. Under the former phase, the AFD invested  €3 billion –loans, capital investments, and technical support–in 26,000 African startups, and MSMEs (which account for some 60% of formal employment and 40% of the national GDP in Africa). 

The project was announced last May in Togo, by AFD representatives.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

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