Chad: How CotonTchad secures agricultural jobs

The great plunge in oil prices in 2014 significantly reduced the country's oil profits from 18.5% of GDP in 2013 to 6.7% in 2016. This drop severely impacted Chad's overall economic activity, and among other things, resulted in great difficulties for the government to subsidize the agricultural sector. Therefore, the country faced a drastic decline in seasonal agricultural production of cotton seeds between 2018 and 2019. 

As part of the implementation of its structural readjustment policy following the crisis, the Chadian state decided to privatize the cotton company, CotonTchad SN, by calling on the Singaporean group Olam*, a world leader in agribusiness, which took a 60% stake in the company in 2018. 

To meet the growing demand, CotonTchad approached Societe Generale, which is partnering with the group in several areas and particularly in Africa, in order to arrange the necessary financing for the restructuring of its activities and the modernization of its means of production. 
To this end, Societe Generale granted a 30 billion FCFA or 45.7 million euros revolving credit and a letter of credit to help CotonTchad SN achieve its working capital requirements, which allowed the company to modernize the harvesting and ginning processes to take greater advantage of the seasonality of its activity.

In June 2022, following the exponential growth rate of the national cotton production, CotonTchad SN renewed its financing request for to Societe Generale, which arranged a global financing of 45 billion FCFA, or 68.6 million euros. 

By supporting CotonTchad SN, Societe Generale confirms its long-term commitment to the sustainable development of the African continent. In this respect and as the leader in the financing of the African agricultural sector, Societe Generale is proud to support the cotton production which is a pillar of the Chadian economy (40% of its export), which is fully in line with the "Grow with Africa" initiative. In addition, by fighting poverty through job creation, CotonTchad SN plans to increase its support from 210,000 to 270,000 farmers in the coming years. 

* CotonTchad SN is 60% owned by the Singaporean group Olam. It was previously 100% owned by the Chadian state. Its mission is to operate the cotton industry. Its activity involves the cotton harvest and purchase of cotton seeds, its ginning, the sale and export of cotton lint and by-products such as vegetable oils, cotton seeds and oil cakes.