Ivory Coast – National Investment Bank (BNI) will dedicate a line of credit of 186 billion CFA francs (US$278 million) to support exporters of coffee and cocoa of Côte d’Ivoire for the 2022/2023 campaign which will begin next October.

This was announced by Jérôme Ahua, deputy general manager of the financial institution. According to the official, this facility will help around thirty players active in the sector to obtain loans to finance their activities. The amount also shows an increase of about 49% compared to the envelope released by the BNI during the previous campaign (125 billion CFA francs).

“Our mission is to support the State in all sectors essential for economic development. We are involved in all agricultural products, whether export products or locally processed products (cashew, cotton and others…)” indicates Mr. Ahua.

Overall, the strengthening of the BNI’s support for operators could in particular enable it to exceed a volume of 200,000 tonnes of cocoa financed during the said campaign against 160,000 tonnes a year earlier.

BNI has been backing the coffee and cocoa sectors for years. The institution has financed the 160,000 tons of cocoa for around US$258 million.

The strengthening of the BNI’s support for operators could in particular enable it to exceed a volume of 200,000 tonnes of cocoa financed during the said campaign against 160,000 tonnes a year earlier

Aside from coffee and cocoa, BNI also finances several other sectors including cotton, rubber, cashew, timber, palm oil and sugar.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the coffee-cocoa sector is the main contributor to agricultural GDP. Faced with the importance of the capital needs of players in the sector, several banking institutions are at work to support operators.

As far as coffee is concerned, the Ivorian industry only brought in around US$24 million in revenue in 2021, but shipped more than US$6 billion in cocoa and derived products during the same year, according to data compiled on the Trade Map platform.

The investment follows an announcement made by Yves Brahima Koné, director of the Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC) stating that all cocoa produced in the country will be traceable from the farmer’s field to the exporters’ factory from the 2023/2024 season.

According to Mr. Koné, the initiative is part of the many efforts implemented by the executive to fight against deforestation in the cocoa sector.

Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletter with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro-industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE