Posted on October 27, 2022

The Autumn Academy “A new era and fundamental changes for CGIs, Challenges and Opportunities” was organised by the Euro-Mediterranean Guarantee Network (EMGN) on 25 – 27 October 2022 in Tunis, as part of its activities in the field of peer-to-peer learning and capacity development.

The EMGN Academy is promoted by the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA), the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The Autumn Academy, conducted in a hybrid format, was organised by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Co-hosted by Société tunisienne de Garantie (SOTUGAR)-Tunis, and facilitated by the Change Initiative.
The main aim of this autumn academy was to share knowledge and good practices among Credit Guarantee Institutions (CGI) from South, East, and North Mediterranean partner countries around three main topics; Strategic, legal, regulatory, and supervisory issues, Financing CGIs and enlarging product offer range, and Operational capabilities and productivity improvement.

Key highlights from the EMGN Autumn Academy training workshop:

  • Given the importance of a well-regulated environment to promote stability, protect stakeholders, and minimize risk, CGSs shared their regulatory and supervision practices, and current challenges including; compliance and capital requirements, taxation, and other issues related to their supervisory bodies. The first day included case examples from Malaysia, Greece, Spain, and EU. In addition to sharing experiences from the MENA region.
  • CGSs are enlarging their product offer range taking into account trends related to digitalization, subsidized pricing, and green finance.
  • Securing the financial sustainability of CGIs is key to achieve growth, develop business models, and enlarge product range. However, CGIs are normally dependent on public support and donors. Hence, enhancing and diversifying sources of income, using portfolio guarantees, risk based pricing, working more closely to SMEs, in addition to revising recovery procedures can help CGIs in becoming more efficient and accelerate their growth.
  • The COVID-19 crisis was a game changer for digital transformation.
  • Digital tools can bring significant benefits for guarantee institutions including:
    ◦ Simplifying internal and external processes
    ◦ Reducing administrative burden and transaction costs
    ◦ Supporting innovation and adaptation
    ◦ Enriching the relationship with beneficiaries
    ◦ Improving the effectiveness of products
  • CGSs in Egypt and Morocco started their digitalization journeys. Their building steps included having a clear digital strategy, targeting operating models, technology foundation, and digital products. However, there are a number of challenges in the journey such as; security issues, data quality and reliability, resilience to change, regulatory obstacles, and lack of resources. The topic will be further explored in the EMGN digitalization working group that has been recently launched.