Trade Finance guarantees to support trade finance in Guinea

Orabank Guinea was set up by Crédit Lyonnais in 1988 and renamed in 2011. It is the third largest financial institution established in Guinea since its independence and benefits from almost 35 years of banking expertise. With more than 80,000 clients, the bank offers a range of innovative bancassurance products accessible through physical and digital channels. It is committed to providing a quality service, while protecting clients. With a network of 20 branches, it has close relations with economic players in the country and currently ranks in 4th place in the Guinean banking sector. The bank is supported by a team of 209 employees providing advice on financing. Orabank Guinea focuses its social and societal efforts on the development of a responsible economy, support for entrepreneurship and data protection, thereby sharing its values with its African subsidiaries.

The project involves the allocation of guarantees for documentary credit operations. Orabank Guinea is the final beneficiary of the planned guarantee scheme: this subsidiary operates in an “LDC” (Least Developed Country) and the development of its activity for Trade Finance operations is held back by the difficulties it faces in finding confirming banks for the documentary credits it issues.

The project will generate impacts on the country’s economy: 

• Support for growth, especially in the current macroeconomic and political context
• Increase in the resources available for issuing banks due to the reduction, made possible by the existence of a guarantee, of the level of collateral deposits they must constitute from confirming banks

These guarantee operations, which have low loss ratios, are often considered by the DFIs that propose them as a useful tool to establish a business relationship with new banking clients, a relationship which can subsequently be expanded with other types of longer-term financing.