(Business in Cameroon) - The International Finance Corporation, World Bank’s private arm, announced talks with CCA-Bank to help the bank improve financing to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Cameroon. If the deal is validated, CCA Bank will receive a 6-year loan of €16.6 million (about CFA10 billion) from the IFC.

According to its plans, the beneficiary will focus primarily on supporting women-led MSMEs. The bank says it will use its network of 45 branches across the country to reach this category of clients who are often marginalized by the banking system. The loan will be complemented by IFC's advisory services to support CCA-Bank’s development and help it strengthen its key frameworks, we learned.

The approval of this international financing for the former microfinance institution should enable it to further position itself on the Cameroonian credit market. Only five years after its transition from microfinance to a bank, the subsidiary of Afrigroup Holding (58.5%), founded by Cameroonian businessman Albert Nkemla, is already one of the top 10 biggest lenders in the market with outstanding loans of CFA230 billion as of January 31, 2023.