Farmers in Burkina Faso SOFITEX to Get Financing from Harvested Cotton

The largest textile fiber company in Burkina Faso, SOFITEX, has signed a financial agreement worth 75 billion CFA Francs (~150,000 million dollars) with local banks, to finance the collection, transportation and ginning of cotton, from the 2013-2014 planting season. The agreement was signed on 21 January 2014, between SOFITEX Director General Jean-Paul Sawadogo and Cheick Travaly, director general of ECOBANK Burkina and leader of the Bank pool, in the presence of Aïssata Diallo, representing the Ministry of Economy and Finances at the event.

"Our pool of bank has now agreed to lend to SOFITEX 75 billion, which is an additional 5 billion from what we gave them last year. This portrays not only the financial health of SOFITEX but also the good stewardship of the resources at the disposal of the company, which has already paid 84% of the money we advanced them last year," observed Mr. Travaly.

Thanking the bank for the support to the company and the farming community, Jean-Paul Sawadogo said, "This fund could not come at a better time, when the company is involved in intense post-harvest activities. It will also go a long way in ensuring that farmers will get paid in a record time of one week after their cotton has been transported to the factory." He reported that SOFITEX alone has harvested 550,000 tons of cotton seed from both conventional and genetically modified cotton, an increase by 10% from the previous season. "This means that 120 billion CFA will be distributed among farmers in the Western Burkina Faso," added Sawadogo.

For more information about this story, contact Hamidou Idogo, Managing editor of Journal du Jeudi, Burkina Faso at h_idogo@yahoo.fr.