(Ecofin Agency) - African Guarantee Fund plans to boost its capital by fivefold to $500 million by 2021. This was reported today May 9 by Reuters which quoted a senior official of the fund whose goal is to help African SMEs secure financing.

“We are in the middle of a fundraising campaign to boost the fund’s capital five-fold to half a billion dollars by 2021,” Adidja Zanouvi, the fund’s managing director for West Africa, said, adding: “We need a lively SME sector to play the role of the economic growth engine.”

This capital increase should be provided by existing shareholders such as African Development Bank (AfDB), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF).

Let’s recall that the capital of the Mauritius-based Fund is currently approximately $100 million.