In Cote d’Ivoire, lenders, from the Arabic Gulf mainly, are meeting with the government in the framework of a roundtable which began on July 19, 2016, and aims to mobilize $468 million required to protect and valorize the Cocody Bay located in Abidjan.

The roundtable benefits from Morocco’s support in respect to Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) signed in June 2013 between Ivorian and Moroccan governments during the visit in Cote d’Ivoire of King Mohammed VI. Among the MoUs, one included a mandate for the structuring and arranging of the project’s financing, which was trusted to Attijariwafa Bank.

Among lenders present at the meeting, there are the Saudi and Kuwait funds, the Islamic Development Bank and the Abu Dhabi Fund. For Attijariwafa Bank which ranked fourth in The Banker’s 2016 top African banks, much is at stake.

The group is carrying out here a major intermediation investment transaction despite Africa’s banking sector currently facing strong headwinds. The region indeed is still suffering from the fall in commodity prices and weakening currencies. Moreover, the International Monetary Fund in its latest forecasts dated 19 July 2016 readjusted, again, its growth outlook for the region.

Idriss Linge