Tunisia - "Banque de l’Habitat"

This project is a Trade Finance Line of Credit (TF LOC) of EUR 60 million to Housing Bank (BH) of Tunisia. This is the first of its kind in Tunisia and North Africa. The TF LOC is part of the AfDB trade finance program launched in 2013. This facility, which is a stable source of financing, will enable BH to have the necessary liquidity in foreign currency, in difficult economic times, to pre-finance the acquisition of energy products, construction equipment, fertilizers, and production in key sectors such as manufacturing, construction, health, education, services and agriculture. The TF LOC will provide BH with medium-term resources to strengthen and intensify the Tunisian financial sector, thereby improving the economic environment in general and the access to finance for SMEs in particular. These resources will thus support the efforts of SMEs to increase exports and conquer new markets, in a sluggish economic environment for the banking sector as a whole, characterized by the drying up of liquidity and the tightening of credit. The project involves also technical assistance (TA) of EUR 1 million to improve the risk management system of BH and build its capacity to finance SMEs.