From Project to Institution: AFD and Crédit Rural de Guinée Invest in Rural Finance for the Long Term

This case study examines how Agence francaise de development (AFD) made a long term commitment to provide financial services to very poor rural customers in the Republic of Guinee through a network of rural community banks.The paper presents:

• An overview of the beginning and development of the project;
• The project's status in 2004;
• AFD's rural finance strategy, which included:
  • Significant investment over the long term;
  • Creation of human resource capacity;
  • Ensuring local governance;
  • Developing a supervisory model;
  • Moving form project to institution.

Finally, the paper states that:

• AFD chose to support the task of building from nothing a broad network of grassroots financial institutions to serve the rural poor; this decision required long-term commitment, extensive resources and a willingness to forego financial viability in the medium-term;
• It has succeeded in building a nationwide, pro-poor institution that plays an important role in the country's local development;
• It is unlikely that AFD will repeat such a long-term project in the same manner.