IFC, Equity in $165m Partnership To Support SMEs

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Equity Group have signed an agreement on the sustainable development of Africa through supporting micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs), including climate-smart businesses.

This also includes IFC and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund acquiring a minority shareholding stake in Equity Group.

The partnership has seen IFC and its partners, namely, the Dutch Development Bank (FMO), British International Investment (BII) and Symbiotics, responsibility from Switzerland commit $165 million towards Equity’s Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan that will see the Group, through its regional banking subsidiaries, finance at least five million MSMEs and 25 million households, thereby creating 50 million jobs.

The facility of $165 million includes $50 million from IFC, $50 million from British International Investment (BII) and $65 million from Symbiotic, Responsibility and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank and a long-time shareholder inequity through Arise Investments.

IFC and the IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund acquired a 6.71 per cent stake in Equity Group, East Africa’s largest banking group.

The investment is IFC’s first in Africa that aligns with the corporation’s approach to increasing green equity investments in financial institutions