The Africa (AFP) SME Program is an integrated program with trade finance and trade development capacity building components, designed to offset the trade finance gap for SMEs and facilitate access to finance.

The AFP SME Program aims to have a positive impact both on banks and SMEs alike. For Banks, it will increase the offering of trade finance products, provide training and SMEs assessment tools to start or strengthen their SMEs lending practices. For SMEs, it will substantially increase the access to financing and build their capacity to decrease default rate on Bank loans.

The partnership between multilateral, private and public sector actors to propose various financing instruments resulted in the increase of the financing envelopes and reduced the cost of financing for SMEs. This included loans, equity guarantees and technical assistance grants.

Along with EDF, partners include ECI insurance at least 40 SMEs led by women (20% of total SMEs), will participate in a 15-month long program that will include pre-and-post- financing support consisting of technical assistance to project preparation, submission of loan applications and post financing project follow up.