Regional - Attijariwafa Bank - Partnership for Trade Development in Africa (AFDB-P-Z1-HAB-073)

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
FI
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
Jul 17, 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
Attijariwafa 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 Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 11.23 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 10
Converted using 2019-07-17 exchange rate.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Sep 11, 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.

According to bank documents, the project consists of a partnership between the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Attijariwafa Bank (AWB) for the development of trade in Africa in the form of a EUR 10 million unfinanced Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) under which both banks agree to share the default risk on a portfolio of eligible trade transactions initiated by African issuing banks (IBs). AWB SA is a Moroccan banking group and a Pan-African multinational based in Casablanca, born of the merger between Banque Commerciale du Maroc founded in 1911 (private bank deemed the first in Morocco) and Wafabank in 2003. The Bank's share of risk will be at most 50% for every transaction except for five (5) IBs from Mauritania and Guinea-Conakry (Mauritania: Banque pour le commerce et l'industrie et Banque populaire de Mauritanie || Guinea Conakry: Banque Islamique Guinee, Orabank, and Banque pour le commerce et l'industrie) where coverage may be up to 75%. Under this Agreement, AWB will place TF resources at the disposal of local banks in Africa and guarantee their financing commitments by confirming their letters of credit (L/C). AfDB will then guarantee up to a maximum of 50% of the value of these transactions confirmed by AWB. This mechanism will serve to guarantee obligations arising from TF instruments such as credit confirmation letters, acceptance letters, export loans (pre-shipment), import loans, the financing of export and import bills, warranty cards, etc. The RPA ceiling will be in EUR, but related transactions can be either in EUR or USD. The duration of the mechanism will be 3 years and the maturity of each transaction cannot exceed 2 years, mindful that most transactions will be for 90 days, in line with standard practice in TF operations.

This RPA aims to: (i) contribute in reducing the TF deficit in Africa; (ii) promote inclusive economic growth and diversification through support for industrialisation; and (ii) increase intra-African trade and strengthen regional integration. The proposed mechanism will help meet the growing demand for TF in Africa, particularly in RMCs and States in transition, providing support to external trade in vital economic sectors like agriculture through fertiliser imports and exports. It will promote regional integration by stimulating intra-African trade and Africa's industrialisation while ensuring imports of high value-added equipment and machines.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

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.

*Contact information not provided at the time of disclosure*

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