Translated via Google / Source: L’Intelligent D’Abidjan
He arrived in Abidjan during the morning of Monday, April 28, 2008, His Highness the Aga Khan, 49th hereditary imam of Shiite Ismaili Muslims and businessman, is very interested in the field of micro-finance in Côte d’Ivoire . At the Presidential Palace, he realized that interest by signing a convention for the first agency of micro-finance in Côte d’Ivoire.
As a prelude to the Convention, which authorizes the establishment of a microfinance institution in Côte d’Ivoire, close associates of His Highness the Aga Khan exchanged with the press during the day Tuesday, April 29. Jacques Toureille, Director General of the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance, Kris Janowski, Director of Communication and secretary and Ferid Nandjee, representative of the AKDN (Aga Khan Development Network) in West Africa, explained the Journalists at stake and the goal by His Highness.
This is according to them, through the Micro-finance, fight against economic exclusion and combat poverty in rural and urban populations by offering a wide range of products suited to their needs. According to collaborators of His Highness, the mandate assigned to the financial institution whose start-up activities is expected no later than September 2008.
With a capital of 3 billion CFA francs (7 million), the institution will be conducted in collaboration with IFC (International Finance Corporation), an agency under the World Bank, the French Cooperation Agency, the European Bank of investment, they assured. In the future, officials expect the institution to strengthen resources in order to obtain 20 million dollars (nearly 9 billion FCFA) to cover 50 miles borrowers. This is the goal that the institution intends to achieve by 4 to 5 years. Côte d’Ivoire is the 7th African country in which an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network) is created, for a total of 14 branches. — Honore Kouassi
Ismailimail 