The Society for the Guarantee of Credits to Ivorian Small and Medium Enterprises (SGPME) has expanded its guarantee program to include Cofina Côte d'Ivoire, a financial institution. Under a new agreement, the SGPME will provide a guarantee of 3 billion CFA francs (about 5.1 million U.S. dollars) to support Cofina Côte d'Ivoire's lending to small and medium businesses. The guarantee covers up to 50 percent of the financing, with a maximum term of five years. This percentage can increase to 80 percent if the business is primarily owned by women. As of February 2026, Cofina Côte d'Ivoire had around 92,000 customers and had funded more than 18,000 projects since its launch, totaling over 256 billion CFA francs in loans. The SGPME guarantee aims to help Cofina Côte d'Ivoire boost its lending to SMEs while reducing its exposure to credit risk. The SGPME has already partnered with FIN'Elle, a financial institution focused on supporting women and a subsidiary of Cofina. This partnership, signed in June 2025, includes a guarantee of 1.2 billion CFA francs. It allows for up to 80 percent coverage of financing for companies with revenues up to 3 billion CFA francs, with 70 percent of the funding reserved for businesses led by women. The new agreement follows recent growth in the SGPME's guarantee program. In May 2026, the SGPME announced it had surpassed 100 billion CFA francs in financing mobilized for SMEs in just three years. In total, 108.77 billion CFA francs had been raised, with 54.80 billion in guarantees provided to 3,715 Ivorian SMEs. This financing is managed through the Partial Portfolio Guarantee (GPP), a mechanism that allows the SGPME to share the risk of lending with financial institutions. For Cofina Côte d'Ivoire, the new guarantee presents an opportunity to increase its lending to SMEs while carefully managing the associated credit risks. The institution now has a stronger foundation to support economic growth in Côte d'Ivoire by expanding access to financing for small businesses.