Guinea - Vista Bank - Africa SME Programme (AFDB-P-GN-HA0-001)

Countries
  • Guinea
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • African Development Bank (AFDB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Sep 24, 2019
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Vista Bank
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 4.21 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Currency conversion note:
Bank reported UA 5,853,901
Converted using 2019-09-24 exchange rate.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Jun 17, 2020


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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

The proposed project is a line of credit of USD 8 million to the banking group Vista Bank in Guinea (Conakry). Vista Bank is a company with a new brand and a unique vision. Besides Guinea, it has banking subsidiaries in Sierra Leone and The Gambia; and aims to create a world-class pan-African group. Vista Bank is also working to deploy a new growth strategy that aims to gradually diversify the portfolio towards Guinean SMEs. It has 16 agencies in Guinea, including 9 in Conakry and 7 in the interior of the country; which together serve around 2,000 business customers, 80% of which are SMEs. This financial support should help support a dozen small and medium-sized enterprises microfinance institutions active in the agricultural value chain in Guinea. It is aimed primarily at women, who will benefit 60 percent of the resources of this line. Particular attention will therefore be paid to small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas, operating in the agricultural, livestock and agro-pastoral processing sectors, as well as young agricultural entrepreneurs. Over half of the resources in this line of credit are for microfinance institutions, partners of Vista Bank and will cover the needs of over 3,000 microprojects. In addition, Vista Bank will provide entrepreneurs with support in the form of advice, technical support, management and training to maximize the success rate of the operation. The African Development Bank will also support Vista Bank in boosting the capacity of its agricultural credit officers, risk management, project management, environmental and social management systems, and management and reporting. development results.

The project is intended to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the Guinean populations. Deployment of resources in support of SMEs will enable SMEs to access long-term resources and to make investments that have been inaccessible until now, due to lack of adequate resources. The project should lead to improving the rate of industrialization of Guinea, thanks in particular to the creation of value chains through the local processing of agricultural products.

The proposed facility is expected to generate solid development outcomes. One hundred per cent of the LoC placed at its disposal will be on-lent to SMEs, 72M of them in rural areas. This will help to unlock access to financing for the very vulnerable populations, thereby fostering wealth and local job creation, indispensable for reducing poverty and curbing rural exodus. Since 57% of the LoC will be on-lent to microfinance institutions active in rural areas and working with youth, this will help to finance over 3,000 micro-projects developed by women and youth especially in the handicrafts and agriculture sectors and help to develop Guinea's agricultural potential. Vista Bank will lend the LoC to 9 SMEs whose value creation will impact 1,051 additional people. Among them, 624 will have direct jobs, 100 others temporary jobs and 327 smallholders' associations will have market outlets for their agricultural produce. Forty-five per cent of these smallholders' associations will be women's associations, involved in the whole value chain, from production to sale on markets.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

private-sector@afdb.org

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/.

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How it works