To boost local production and create jobs through a portfolio of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, the African Development Bank has approved a $40m financial package to support Angola’s Banco Millennium Atlântico.
Banco Millennium Angola and Banco Privado Atlântico merged in 2016 into BMA, the fifth largest Angolan bank by assets.
According to the Communication and External Relations Department of AfDB, Amba Mpoke-Bigg, the package consists of a $32m line of credit from AfDB and $8m in parallel financing from the Africa Growing Together Fund, a co-financing fund sponsored by the People’s Bank of China and administered by AfDB.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mpoke-Bigg noted that the facility would provide the long-term financing required by BMA to support the expansion needs of growth-oriented SMEs operating mostly in agriculture, agro-industry and domestic manufacturing.
Against the backdrop of the coronavirus disease and the dip in oil prices, the package will also help to create direct and indirect jobs, contribute the needed foreign exchange savings through import substitution, and lay foundation to boost exports to neighbouring countries.
Financial Street gathered that by fostering local production and stimulating job creation through a diversified pipeline of projects, the funds would ultimately contribute towards Angola’s efforts to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth as well as economic diversification in a country heavily reliant on oil export revenues.
BMA, one of the largest commercial banks in Angola and a leading financier of domestic firms, especially SMEs, is headquartered in the capital city, Luanda, with a country-wide network of branches.
