The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDBG), and Coris Bank International (CBI) — Burkina Faso, a member of the Coris Burkina Bank Group, have entered into an agreement to finance private sector enterprises in Faso, affected by the pandemic.
Ayman Amin Sejiny, CEO of ICD, and Diakarya Ouattara, managing director of CBI — Burkina Faso, signed the line of financing (LoF) agreement for €15 million ($18 million) under the commodity Murabaha financing structure dedicated to the Islamic window of the bank.
“The line of financing facility will be utilized by CBI — Burkina Faso to support economic activities of eligible private sector businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. This facility is part of ICD’s $250 million support package to assist member countries recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sejiny.
Ouattara praised the quality of the partnership between the two institutions and recalled that in 2016, the bank benefited from the first line for an amount of €17 million over a four-year maturity period. He said it has enabled them to support several small-medium enterprises (SMEs)/small-medium industries through the financing of projects in various vital sectors such as health, education, agriculture, agro-food industry and transport. Ouattara also thanked ICD for extending the facility in these difficult times where banks need liquidity to support their affected clients, especially SMEs.
Coris Bank Group is an existing client of ICD and this LoF facility is the third one provided by ICD to the group; the other two include LoF facilities extended to CBI Burkina Faso and CBI Mali for €17 million in 2016 and €6 million in 2018, respectively.
Since its inception and as a testament to ICD’s commitment to developing the private sector within its member countries, ICD has extended LoF facilities to several financial institutions present in Sub-Saharan Africa for the development of the private sector, including SMEs.
