Joint Statement issued by Alain Juppé, Ministre d’Etat, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and Henri de Raincourt, Minister attached to the Ministre d’Etat, with responsibility for Cooperation
Following the release by the French Development Agency (AFD) Board of Governors of aid worth €400 million - approved by France - to Côte d’Ivoire, Alain Juppé, Ministre d’Etat, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and Henri de Raincourt, Minister attached to the Ministre d’Etat, with responsibility for Cooperation, reaffirm France’s resolute commitment alongside the Ivorian people.
France is the first bilateral donor to provide financial support to the reconstruction of Côte d’Ivoire, following the request made by the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara.
In order to deal with the humanitarian emergency and to allow Côte d’Ivoire to swiftly begin its economic and social recovery, the Ministre d’Etat, Alain Juppé, and the Minister responsible for Cooperation, Henri de Raincourt, invite their international partners to similarly affirm their commitment alongside Côte d’Ivoire, as the European Union has just done so.
On the sidelines of the Spring Assembly in Washington (14 to 17 April), France will actively argue with the international financial institutions in favor of resolute action to provide Côte d’Ivoire with the liquidity that it needs.
The AFD therefore decided to approve a loan to the Ivorian State amounting to €350 million. This loan will be implemented in the form of budgetary aid.
This budgetary aid could notably allow the funding of high-priority budgetary expenditure, in particular the payment of civil servants and the funding of emergency social expenditure.
With respect to the accumulated arrears owed by Côte d’Ivoire to the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), the French loan will be combined with the provision of a bridging loan of €50 million to refinance the arrears owed to financial institutions before the disbursement of their initial support.
This sovereign loan allocated to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire will have a maturity of 9 years and will be recorded as Official Development Assistance.