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In the spring of 2025, Mr. Lanciné Diaby, Director General of Côte d'Ivoire's Debt Management Office (Direction Générale des Financements, or DGF), stood before GlobalCapital's audience to accept two of the industry's most prestigious distinctions: “Most Impressive Issuer in Africa” and “Most Impressive Funding Official in Africa”. His message at the time was simple: these awards were not an endpoint, but a milestone on a much longer journey. The Republic would continue to innovate and diversify its funding sources. Fast forward to a year later, Côte d'Ivoire has done just that with the execution, among others, of a Samurai bond and a sustainability-linked loan (SLL) with a novel double World Bank Group guarantee.

In a complex market environment, AFL, the only French bank owned by local governments, will diversify its funding sources further in 2026 to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of its credit. In this interview with GlobalCapital, Yves Millardet, chairman of AFL’s executive board explains how it is expanding its footprint across bond markets and continuing to focus on optimising funding costs as part of a strategy designed to secure financing for French local public investment for the long term