The Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), a leading pan-African banking group, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Japan's second largest bank, signed, on Wednesday in Yokohama (Japan) a memorandum of understanding to mutually develop business opportunities on the African continent. This MoU, which reinforces the historical partnership between the two groups, was initialed by Kamal Mokdad, Director General of BCP, and Masahiko OSHIMA, Vice President of SMFG (Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group) and SMBC. «This memorandum reflects the common will of both institutions, BCP and SMBC, to strengthen their cooperation in the strategic sectors of the different geographical areas where they are present, thus contributing to further promote the sustainable development of trade and investment activities between Japan and Africa», said Mokdad. Through this strategic partnership, concluded on the sidelines of the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-VII), BCP and its subsidiaries become privileged banks that support Japanese and Asian clients of the SMBC group within the framework of their investment and trade projects in Morocco, Mauritius as well as in sub-Saharan countries where BCP operates. This multifaceted support covers areas such as project financing, cash management and trade finance products, and local partnership development.
