Ninety eight million euros, or 64.3 billion FCFA is the amount of the loan agreement signed between the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) ), a specialized body of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) group.
This funding will finance the 2019/2020 cotton campaign of the Cotton Development Society (SODECOTON). “Specifically, 20 million euros (13,140,818,090 FCFA) will be used to acquire agricultural inputs and 78 million euros (51,249,190,551 FCFA) for the marketing of seed cotton and soybeans to cooperatives and farmers.”
Through this funding, we learnt , “SODECOTON aims to increase its annual production and surpass that of the previous campaign. The agro-industrial giant had achieved a record production of 320,000 tonnes of cotton during the 2018-2019 campaign, a performance never achieved by the company since 2004 “.
In terms of prospects, the agro-industrial unit intends to bring the quantities taken out of the units to 400,000 tonnes in 2022 and 600,000 tonnes in 2025. Objectives which can be achieved “if the investments necessary for the upgrade are made” , Mohamadou Bayero, Director General of SODECOTON explained.
