ADF Approves $14.04M Loan to Boost Guinea’s Industrial Development and SME Resilience

Ousmane Fall, Director of the Bank's Industrial Development and Trade Department, highlighted Guinea’s untapped potential for industrial development.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, has greenlit a $14.04 million loan for Guinea under the Industrial Development and SME Resilience Support Project. This financing, sourced from Pillar 1 of the Transition Support Facility, aims to strengthen Guinea’s institutional capacity to foster industrial development and enhance resilience among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The project is designed to bolster Guinea’s ability to plan, coordinate, monitor, and promote industrial growth. It includes initiatives to support the expansion and resilience of small enterprises and industries, as well as to improve public service delivery to the private sector.

Ousmane Fall, Director of the Bank's Industrial Development and Trade Department, highlighted Guinea’s untapped potential for industrial development. He emphasized that the support from the African Development Fund will address underlying fragility issues and build long-term resilience through institutional development, fostering sustainable and inclusive industrialization.

The project is structured around three key components:

Strengthening planning and implementation capacity for development policies.

Integrated support for resilience, promoting green industry growth, and enhancing SMEs.

Project management and coordination.

The initiative aims to benefit all sectors of Guinea’s private industry, directly or indirectly. It particularly targets women and youth, aiming to increase their opportunities by strengthening the private sector support ecosystem aligned with new industrial policies and local content laws.

Enhancing Guinea’s institutional capacity for industrial policies is expected to yield lasting development impacts. The project seeks to accelerate economic transformation by stimulating SMEs, including those led by women, modernizing industries, boosting exports, enhancing competitiveness, and attracting private investments. Improving human resources, especially among youth, and reducing gender disparities are also prioritized.

This project aligns with the African Development Bank Group’s broader efforts in Guinea, which focus on developing agro-industry, establishing specialized agro-industrial processing zones, formalizing the informal sector, and promoting entrepreneurship among youth and women. These initiatives collectively aim to drive sustainable economic growth and social development in Guinea.