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Coris Holding, the Burkinabe banking conglomerate controlled by Idrissa Nassa, and Vista Bank are jointly soliciting $45 million from the International Finance Corporation for a facility designed to expand lending to small and medium-sized enterprises across Senegal, according to Agence Ecofin reporting published today.
The joint request covers two separate loan facilities. The IFC is being asked to provide $25 million to Coris Bank International Senegal, Nassa's Senegal subsidiary, alongside a $20 million facility for Vista Bank Senegal, which operates as an independent institution. The two banks are approaching the IFC together to demonstrate a coordinated approach to expanding formal credit access for SMEs in one of West Africa's most commercially dynamic economies.
The Senegal request runs parallel to a separate IFC facility in the pipeline for Coris in Chad, where the IFC has proposed a $10 million five-year senior loan to Coris Bank International Chad to expand SME lending across trade, manufacturing, construction and agriculture. The Chad facility was acquired through Coris Holding's purchase of Societe Generale's Chadian operations in 2024. The Senegal facility is a larger, jointly structured instrument targeting a more developed SME market.
Senegal's economy has been in the spotlight since the election of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in March 2024 and the subsequent confirmation of significant offshore oil and gas reserves, with production from the Sangomar field having begun and the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim LNG project progressing. The expansion of formal banking access for Senegalese SMEs is part of a broader strategy among West African lenders to capture a share of the economic activity expected to accompany the country's energy sector expansion.
Coris Bank International Senegal is part of Nassa's UEMOA-zone banking network that now spans 11 countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Benin, Niger, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire. Nassa founded Coris Bank International in Burkina Faso in 2008 and has grown it into the third-largest banking group in the UEMOA zone by assets over 17 years of organic expansion and strategic acquisition.
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