Benin has secured 500 million euros, approximately 328 billion FCFA, from international banks to finance a series of public investments in education, health, water, infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture, and job creation for youth and women.

The operation, concluded on September 18, 2026, is based on a guarantee structure designed to reduce the risk borne by lenders and improve the country’s access to international financing.

An AfDB guarantee to attract banks.

The African Development Fund, the concessional arm of the African Development Bank Group, has provided a partial credit guarantee for the operation. This is complemented by second-loss insurance from the insurance subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank Group.

This mechanism allows for risk-sharing among multiple institutions and facilitates the mobilization of private capital with a final maturity of twelve years. The African Development Bank presents this transaction as an example of using multilateral guarantees to attract more private financing to African states.

After 350 million euros in 2023

Benin had previously utilized a similar arrangement in 2023. At that time, a partial credit guarantee from the AfDB of 195 million euros enabled the country to raise a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) loan of 350 million euros on the international market, also with a twelve-year maturity.

This earlier operation was dedicated to expenditures aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, including drinking water, sanitation, renewable energy, education, sustainable agriculture, sports, urban development, and coastal erosion mitigation.

Funding aimed at several priority sectors

For the 2026 operation, the resources are intended to support several sectors deemed priorities by the Beninese authorities. The African Development Bank specifically mentions education, health, access to water, infrastructure, renewable energy, renewable energy, agriculture, and job creation for youth and women.

The financing aligns with Benin’s strategy to diversify its sources of external funding and to increasingly utilize multilateral bank guarantees to reduce the cost and extend the maturity of its debt.

Source: Beninwebtv