Africa-Press – Angola. The Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) and Banco Caixa Geral Angola (BCGA) signed, early Thursday evening, a cooperation agreement to facilitate access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized companies in other regions of the country.
The initiative is part of the Commercial Agriculture Development Project (PDAC).
Designed by the Angolan Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the PDAC is funded by the World Bank (WB) and the French Development Agency (AFD), which provided a global amount of US$230 million, of which US$130 million was from the WB and 100 million from AFD.
In addition to the financial component, the initiative also includes specialized technical support for producers.
With a forecast of harvesting 4.5 or 5 tons of corn/hectare, the PDAC essentially aims to encourage producers to increase production and sustain food security in the country.
With the signing of the Agreement, the PDAC, which has been running since 2020 in Angola, now has the financial support of Banco Caixa Geral Angola (BCGA), which is available to finance agricultural initiatives under this programme.
For the operationalization of the respective financing, Caixa Angola also signed, on the same occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The respective agreement aims to facilitate access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs and cooperatives dedicated to the production of corn, beans, soy, coffee, eggs and chicken, within the scope of the PDAC.
With the signed agreement, the number of national banking institutions available to finance PDAC projects rises to four, an initiative that now brings together banks BFA, BAI, Sol, and now, Caixa Angola.
On the occasion, the chairman of the BCGA Executive Committee, João Plácido Pires, referred that the Memorandum is part of the institution’s commitment to supporting Angola’s economic growth, through initiatives by companies that contribute to increasing national production.
He assured that the banking institution has a “plafound” or an “unlimited” financial portfolio to finance all projects that fall under the PDAC.
In turn, the director of the Office of Studies, Planning and Statistics (GEPE), of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Anderson Jerónimo, underlined that the BCGA initiative will make it possible to expand investment and increase the number of operators in the agricultural sector.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of the FGC, Luzayadio Simba, considered that the new Memorandum will bring new financing opportunities to companies and, consequently, generate jobs and reinforce the diversification of the economy.
PDAC covers other regions
Initially, the program covered a corridor, called A, which benefits entrepreneurs from the provinces of Luanda, Bengo, Cuanza Norte, and Malanje, who continue to produce.
As part of the signed agreement, corridor B was created, covering the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Huambo, Biė and the northern part of Huíla, regions where Banco Caixa Geral Angola will operate within the framework of the PDAC.
“What we found is that there was a geographic limitation, which meant that we had a small number of companies requesting support from the Fund in terms of guarantees”, justified the CEO of the Credit Guarantee Fund, Luzayadio Simba.
Since the beginning of the project, in 2020, BFA, BAI and Banco Sol have already financed 2.6 billion kwanzas, with the FGC issuing 50 public guarantees worth 1.7 billion kwanzas, under the PDAC.
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