"Dispositif Pme" kicked off in Togo to boost SMEs and SMIs
Friday, 03 August 2018 16:41 
(Togo First) - On August 2, 2018, in Lomé, Togo’s trade and private sector’s development ministry, in partnership with BCEAO, kicked off the national launch of a scheme, aimed at supporting the financing of WAEMU’s SMEs and SMIs.
Initiated by BCEAO, “ Dispositif Pme”, which should be implemented in each of WAEMU member countries, is aimed at setting an ecosystem favorable to SMEs’ funding by banks in order to improve their contribution to GDP and their job creation capacity.
This scheme provides an appropriate solution to SMEs’ funding problems, via incentives offered by BCEAO to credit institutions. “When credits are offered to eligible companies, BCEAO can, in return, refinance those credits to the banks at more attractive conditions”, Kossi Ténou, BCEAO’s resident representative in Togo, explained.
The goals of this scheme are to promote SMEs by improving their management and refinance eligible companies’ loans as well as diversify the financial instruments adapted to their needs.
To be eligible for that scheme, the company should be a non-financial institution producing market goods or services with less than CFA1 billion as operating capital. The company must also fulfill the legal obligations to publish financial reports according to WAEMU’s rules.
The Togolese ministry of trade and private sector development Bernadette Legzim-Balouki informs that the government will take all the required measures to allow the operationalization of this scheme in Togo.
Let’s remind that this scheme falls in line with the permission granted to the Central Bank in 2012 by WAEMU heads of States in the framework of the action plan to finance the union’s economies.
Séna Akoda
