The National Bank for Economic Development (French: Banque Nationale de Developpement Economique, BNDE) is a bank in Burundi.
Foundation and ownership
The BNDE was established in 1967 to assist Burundi's economic development by providing loan and equity funds to agricultural, industrial and tourism enterprises, and to finance housing.[1]
BNDE was founded with a share capital of 60 million BIF.
It survived the crisis that began in 1993, althugh its external lines of credit were frozen for over fifteen years.[3]
Unlike commercial banks, it does not support bank accounts, but mainly finances medium- to long-term development projects.
These included schools, universities (especially private ones), health centers and civil servant housing.
It was a leader in financing micro-projects and funding microfinance institutions.[3]
The six founding members of the Network of Microfinance Institutions in 2002 were the National Bank for Economic Development (BNDE), the Development Finance Company (COFIDE), the Cooperative Savings and Mutual Credit Fund (CECM), the Municipal Development Fund (Fonds de Développement Communal, FDC), Twitezimbere ASBL and the Cooperative for Solidarity with Peasants for Savings and Credit (COSPEC).
They wanted a framework to discuss their policies and strategies, to professionalize the sector and to establish a sustainable partnership system.[4]
As of 2020 the BNDE was financing agriculture and livestock, industry and agro-industry, crafts, tourism, health and education, housing up to 15 years, refinancing of microfinance institutions, financing of renewable energy and ICT, CEMT, micro-credits and project savings.
The BNDE had share capital estimated at over 10 billion BIF.[3]
