Cofina is a young pan-African mesofinance group. BIO's transaction consists in providing EUR 12m of long term debt to its most mature entities, being in Senegal and Ivory Coast to support the growth of their MSME portfolio.
Cofina started its activities in 2014 and is now one of the leading MFIs in 4 of its 6 countries. Cofina was initially focusing its activities on income generating loans and guarantees to unbanked MSMEs. In 2016, it started to deploy retail activities providing current accounts, savings accounts, notes, bank cards, online transfer services, insurance products to its clients who were usually excluded from formal financial services.
Cofina is still a young pan-African mesofinance group in deployment phase. However, its unique business model, innovative products, entrepreneurial mindset, agility, understanding of its market, and the level of professionalism of its top management make of Cofina a major MFI disruptor.
Financing Cofina will improve local MSME financing while their contribution is vital;
Direct and indirect job creation (average 47% increase in staff costs within next 2y)
COFINA provides a broad offer of innovative and efficient financial services
By extending the offer of financial products available to MSMEs, BIO’s financing participates to financial inclusion;
Cofina helps MSMEs to move towards more formalisation.
