Cape Verde’s Growth Fund analyzed by World Bank

The port city of Mindelo, Cape Verde

The government of Cape Verde and the World Bank (WB) have started the process of restructuring the Growth and Competitiveness Fund (FCC) to offer the “best responses” to the needs of private companies in the archipelago, said pan-African news agency Panapress citing corporate sources in Praia.
The Windward Chamber of Commerce (Barlavento) said in a statement that the restructuring of FCC was one of 10 proposals submitted to Prime Minister José Maria Neves by the Association of Young Entrepreneurs (AJEC) in 2014, in order to improve the business environment for micro, small and medium enterprises in Cape Verde.
AJEC also asked the government to restructure the FCC in terms of objectives, beneficiaries, coverage areas, intervention tools and its management mode. The FCC is allowed to fund various activities that “help the company to take a leap” ranging from marketing and businesses plans to software, employee training and certification of companies and products in the agribusiness area.
The maximum value of funding for micro-enterprises is 500,000 escudos (about USD5,200) and for small and medium enterprises the maximum is 1 million escudos (US$10,400) and groups of companies can get 2.5 million escudos (about US$26,000).
This fund is specifically designed to offset the problems Cape Verdean entrepreneurs face due to the market structure in which they operate, to increase the competitiveness of the private sector and promote development of the financial sector.
Management of the FCC was assigned to the Cape Verde Chambers of Commerce based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed by business associations and the government. MDT/Macauhub