Awards for Excellence 2020
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Societe Generale has long been active in promoting finance for small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa.
Under deputy chief executive Philippe Heim, it expanded its Maison de la PME programme in 2019, which facilitates funding for SMEs.
The programme now runs in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Benin and Guinea.
The French bank has also signed agreements with Proparco, the private-sector financing arm of Agence Française de Développement, in both Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
“Due to the change in customer needs, the market for SMEs is not properly covered,” says Laurent Goutard, head of Societe Generale in Africa. “We’ve developed a network of houses for SMEs, and the idea is to help entrepreneurs to structure projects and be capable of banking those projects.
“We’ve taken a different approach in one country to another, postponed some loans and now the main activity is proximity – being as close as possible to clients. All the teams are open and are in touch with clients, asking how we can support them.”
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Philippe Heim |
Use of the bank’s mobile banking app wallet, Yup, increased by roughly 179% year on year during the Covid-19 crisis in the first three months of 2020. The bank has seen around a 10% increase in deposits over this time period, which Goutard says reflects a “flight to quality.”
Through its foundation, Societe Generale participates in local initiatives across Africa that are designed to improve education, access to training and the development of income-generating activities.
In 2019, the foundation granted €665,500 to 16 projects across Africa. These include working with the humanitarian agency Care to support the creation of micro-enterprises and cooperatives run by women in Morocco. It has also organised computer programming training with Simplon in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.
As part of its contribution to the fight against Covid-19, the bank donated €1.5 million to Médecins sans Frontières in Africa and is also a contributor to a range of long-term health initiatives.
In 2019, the bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, pledging to use its expertise and resources to strengthen the financial and entrepreneurship skills of women in west and central Africa to promote their empowerment and engagement in health programmes.
