Groupe Cofina gets backing for SME finance expansionPublished by: Andrew Mizner at 01/06/2022With additional investment from a London-headquartered private equity firm, an Ivory Coast financial serv...With additional investment from a London-headquartered private equity firm, an Ivory Coast financial services provider is targeting the SME market in West and Central Africa. Africa-focused private equity firm Development Partners International (DPI) has acquired a stake in Ivory Coast-based Groupe Cofina, investment which the financial services provider will use to scale up its services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in West and Central Africa. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a major economic setback to the Sub-Saharan region, with SMEs hit hard and requiring specific financial backing. To that end, Cofina targets what it calls “the missing middle” of finance, bigger than microfinance and smaller than that from traditional financial institutions. Earlier this year, the development finance institutions of France and the United Kingdom provided backing to SMEs in South Africa and Nigeria, respectively.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 01, 2022 20:49 UTC