Guinea

Developing rural areas is a priority in combating poverty and enabling food sovereignty. AFD mainly intervenes in the agricultural sector, which represents around 75% of the working population and 18% of the country's GDP. Our objectives are as follows:

• Professionalising all agricultural sectors from production to marketing in order to increase the production and income of actors in these sectors.
• Open up agricultural production zones.
• Limit the environmental impact of agriculture. 

AFD is thus funding the following projects:

• The SARITEM project which aims to support the rice and salt sectors in the mangrove areas of coastal Guinea.
• Developing rice and fish farming in the forest areas of the country, which employs close to 1,500 farmers.
• Opening up agricultural production zones through the renovation of 615 km of rural roads.

We also support local development through the Village Communities Support Programme (PACV). Since 2009, over 1,000 micro-projects have been funded in 303 rural villages. 

Consolidating local production and environmental preservation 

AFD wishes to ensure that the projects it funds consolidate production and environmental preservation. The aim is to support the sectors involved by educating those involved about methods that can help them reduce the environmental impact of their activity and sustainably manage natural resources, especially those of the forest.

Studies to come

Several studies are already underway. They focus on the sustainable management of Guinea's forests, the implementation of a durable agricultural statistical system and the groundnut and poultry sectors. 

Women at the heart of rural development

AFD places particular importance on the role played by women in these projects. We especially make sure that they take part in debates and in governance meetings for local communities.
 
 

Education and young peoples' access to employment are major challenges facing Guinea today, with a low literacy rate (40%), low quality education, insufficient infrastructure, and training programmes poorly adapted to the market's needs. 

To change this, AFD has been supporting the education sector in Guinea since 2002. This has had real, concrete results: the number of children receiving primary school education has increased in areas that are hard to access and where this rate had previously been very low (Education For All project, 2002-2008).

Today:

• We are improving access to and acquisition of primary school education as well as the Ministry of Education's management skills (Common Fund for Basic Education (FoCEB). 
• We support the training and professional integration of young people into the agricultural and mining sectors. 
• We are working to strengthen the coverage, quality and equity of primary and secondary education. 

Supporting local businesses and the emergence of a consolidated private sector is the best way of stimulating the creation of jobs and companies, productivity gains and, ultimately, inclusive economic growth. With the assistance of our subsidiary dedicated to private investment, Proparco, this support is mainly focused on: 

• financial inclusion, with the support of microfinance institutions and facilitating access to funding for SMEs. The ARIZ loans and guarantees portfolio in this area amounts to more than €30 million as of 30 June 2017;  
• direct funding of leading private companies in the Guinean market in senior debt and/or equity provided by Proparco;
• direct funding of public companies and projects carried out by AFD through debt and guarantee tools.

More specifically, AFD is the main partner of the Rural Credit of Guinea (CRG), which was created in 1987 and is still today the leader of the Guinean market. At the meso-economic level and in supporting local SMEs, Ecobank Guinea, the International Bank for Commerce and Industry in Guinea (BICIGUI) and the Société générale des banques de Guinée (SGBG) are eligible for bank guarantees, which cover more than 60% of the credit market.

As a result of this coverage, AFD had outstanding guarantees and loans to a value of €40 million as of 31 December 2017. 
 

Despite good energy potential, Guinea suffers from an electricity deficit linked to poor infrastructure. This is an essential sector for the country's development and is at the heart of AFD's actions:

• we support public authorities in restructuring the sector;  
• we fund construction works to renovate, reinforce and expand the national electricity transport network as well as the local distribution network to Conakry and the surrounding areas.

As for the roads, the aim is to make domestic transit more fluid and connect the country to the rest of the sub-region. We have also co-funded the construction of the Moussoudougou interchange and the resurfacing of the 4-lane highway in Conakry. In addition, we have supported the transport sector by boosting the capacities of the Guinea Urban Passenger Transport Company (SOTRAGUI). 

Despite its nickname of the "water tower of West Africa", Guinea is a thirsty country. Against the backdrop of high population growth and rapid urbanisation, access to clean drinking water and good sanitation are still major issues, especially in urban areas. This is why we have participated in the sanitation programme for the Yimbaya and Matoto districts of the capital.

Guinea is facing several urgent healthcare issues. Firstly, there are infectious diseases to combat. 

As the epicentre of the Ebola epidemic in 2014-2015, Guinea received AFD support to contain the spread of the virus and locally reinforce monitoring and research capacities. We funded the construction of the treatment centre in Macenta, managed by the French Red Cross. 

We also supported the creation of the Institut Pasteur in Conakry for the detection and control of infectious diseases in Guinea and the sub-region, as well as the bolstering of medical biology, one of the essential links in the healthcare chain.

AFD is also working to help improve maternal and infant health in the region of N'Zérékoré in the forest areas of Guinea. 

As actors in the field, NGOs are key partners for development in Guinea. From 2010-2015, AFD supported 13 projects run by 11 French NGOs and around twenty local charities. 

These projects focused on:

• rural development;
• protecting the environment through coastal preservation;
• healthcare with support from health insurance providers;
• primary education;
• protecting human rights;
• structuring civil society.