REGMIFA

Symbiotics Capacity Building deploys for REGMIFA TA Facility a SME finance project in “Compact with Africa” countries with funding from KfW

February 10, 2022

Through Symbiotics Association for Sustainable Development (SASD), Symbiotics Capacity Building is committed to reinforcing financial institutions in emerging markets. It has gathered over USD 18 million in donor funding for deploying over 140 technical assistance projects, ranging from governance, product development, sustainability, social performance, digital financial services, green energy and agriculture finance.

As manager of the Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) of REGMIFA, in November 2021 SASD designed and structured the first annual edition of the Technical Assistance Package on SME finance (TAPSME). With a total of four yearly editions, each benefitting at least six Partner Lending Institutions (PLI), this regional program intends to enhance the capabilities of REGMIFA PLIs to support and serve small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in sub-Saharan countries that have joined or will join G20 Compact with Africa (CwA). The initial six PLIs are drawn from Burkina Faso (3), Ivory Coast (1) and Senegal (2). The program also includes an independent impact study that will measure the outcomes of REGMIFA end-borrowers in terms of financial inclusion, employment and poverty levels.

Funded by the German Development Bank KfW for the account of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), TAPSME focus is on technical assistance support on topics such as product development, SME methodology and related processes, legislation and compliance, risk management, impact measurement, environmental and social management systems (ESMS), social performance management, client protection principles, and digitization of processes.

In December 2021, SASD launched an international tender to select a knowledgeable and experienced international and local experts team possessing the varied skills sets needed for the implementation of the first edition of TAPSME, which has a total budget of EUR 600,000. Four high qualitative proposals from renowned development finance consulting firms were received. After evaluation, the award of the tender was granted at the beginning of January 2021 to the consortium formed by IPC-Internationale Projekt Consult and Expert Synergy Consulting for their specific experience relevant to the assignment. The project implementation is expected to be launched in February 2022.

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 For more information, contact:
Samy Derradji, Corporate Communication Manager, Symbiotics
samy.derradji@symbioticsgroup.com