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Economic financing - Our work and impact
Economic financing is a fundamental driver for establishing solid growth, reducing inequality, and laying the groundwork for sustainable development.
As France’s international development cooperation agency, we strengthen financial systems, mobilise financial resources at various levels, and simplify access to funding in our partner countries for economic stakeholders – including startups, MSMEs, private investors and craftspeople.
+50 % of SMEs in developing countries are unable to access financing and loans
Our work is key in fostering the development of and access to financing. Our projects focus on financing green initiatives, facilitating access to socially responsible investment, encouraging diaspora investment, and improving financing conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Our strategic priorities
We work to facilitate access to sources of finance by supporting national strategies, modernising financial mechanisms (namely public investment funds, subsidies and guarantees), and introducing innovative financing tools such as participatory financing and green finance. Our action is structured around four key pillars:
- Design enabling financial frameworks: We support national financial legislation and financing strategies for the private sector, foster innovation finance, and promote the investment role of public and private depository institutions.
- Support institutional investment policies and practices: We assist in establishing public financing through sovereign wealth funds, subsidies and guarantees. We also help raise green capital through carbon taxes, environmental risk management strategies, the development of a green taxonomy, and awareness-raising initiatives.
- Develop inclusive finance mechanisms: Our initiatives promote alternative financing (crowdfunding, micro and meso finance), venture capital ecosystems, and tools to unlock better access to financing. We promote green finance and help channel domestic resources into long-term investment.
- Financial education and culture: We improve the readiness and attractiveness of entrepreneurs and businesses to investment through strategic, operational, marketing, and financial training. At the same time, we raise awareness among financial stakeholders about inclusive and environmentally responsible practices, for example by introducing them to new criteria for project assessment.
“The Summit for a New Global Financial Pact reminds us that we must invest massively in quality, inclusive, resilient infrastructure that meets the urgent and long-term needs of people and the planet to achieve the SDGs.”
- CEO of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Chair of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC).
Our framework for action
Our Contract of Objectives and Means (COM) is an agreement between Expertise France and the French government that sets our budget and strategic priorities for the coming years. It stresses the importance of access to finance to support regulatory frameworks that are conducive to investment; support the development of the funding landscape, including seed funding, investment banks, guarantees, microloans and innovative funding mechanisms; and facilitate access to bank loans for businesses through needs assessment, staff training in financial institutions, and mediation between lending institutions and borrowers.
Our work aligns with the priorities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and its recommendations on Africa’s annual financing needs to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We contribute to SDG 10 (reducing inequalities) and SDG 8 (fostering economic growth).
For further reading
Our services in this area
In our partner countries, we deliver services specifically tailored to economic financing, including:
- Technical support to develop the lending capacities of financial institutions
- Support for MSMEs
- Guidance for public investment banks on full-cycle project support and for depository institutions on diaspora investment strategies and specific financial services
- Strengthening of alternative, nonprofit finance networks (e.g., zero-interest no-collateral loans) and their ties with international funders
- Boosting of domestic resource mobilisation and the role of capital markets in sustainable economic and social development
- Promotion of new financing schemes for the private sector that prioritise inclusion and underreached clients
MEET Africa: Engaging banks for inclusive financing
Economic financing by Expertise France
FAQs
For more about economic financing
Economic financing includes mechanisms allowing economic stakeholders to access the finances they need to invest, innovate, produce and spend. This includes internal financing (self-financing) and external financing through loans, grants and capital investment.
Expertise France supports economic financing through socially and environmentally responsible finance programmes, microloans, and initiatives that strengthen SME ecosystems. Our work aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and national strategies for private sector support, via technical assistance, grants and the deployment of experts.
Economic financing can be achieved through several means:
- Direct financing through the markets (shares, bonds)
- Intermediate financing via banks or financial institutions
- Public financing (sovereign wealth funds, subsidies, guarantees)
- Alternative financing (micro/meso finance, zero-interest no-collateral loans, crowdfunding)
Expertise France facilitates access to these finance mechanisms, supports national enabling strategies and fosters financing for innovation. Our agency also supports public investment banks to develop tailored programmes for borrowers throughout their business lifecycle.
International cooperation strengthens economic ecosystems and promotes access to financing by harnessing expertise, transferring knowledge, and creating mechanisms suited to local needs.
Expertise France leads impactful projects such as:
- EU4PSL (Libya): Enhancing the business climate and youth/women entrepreneurship by supporting private sector development.
- Innov’i – EU4Innovation (Tunisia): Supporting Tunisia’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem to foster long-term, sustainable economic development.
- Support Facility for West African Depository Banks: Assisting Benin and Côte d’Ivoire in structuring and developing their depository institutions as a means to mobilise African domestic resources and help the continent’s capital markets serve development.
Through these initiatives, international cooperation drives the development of inclusive, green, participatory finance and supports the transition to more sustainable economies.
Our Projects
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