The assets of Banque Nationale Agricole (BNA Bank) include significant commitments to state enterprises, in particular the grain agency “Office des Céréales.”
At the end of 2022, these commitments reached 5,945 million dinars, compared with 5,176 million dinars a year earlier (+15%), of which 4,768 million dinars were owed to the Office des Céréales.
This represents about 27% of total on- and off-balance-sheet customer commitments, compared with 3,940 million dinars in 2021, an increase of 21%.
At this level, commitments to Office des Céréales were well in excess of the threshold of 25% of the Bank’s net capital imposed by the Banque de Tunisie (BCT), with which these commitments are directly refinanced for an amount of 1,958 million dinars.
These commitments represent more than 2.5 times the Bank’s capital.
As a result, the financing of the Office des Céréales had a significant impact on the bank’s cash position, which showed a negative balance of 4,545 million dinars at 31 December 2022, compared with – 3,417 million dinars at 31 December 2021.
It should be noted that the cheques drawn by the Office des Céréales on the “Trésorerie Générale de Tunisie” in respect of its rights to compensation, which had not yet been cashed by the BNA at 31 December 2022, totaled 2,385 million dinars.
In addition, the State guarantees granted to the bank in respect of the commitments of the Office des Céréales amount to 4,768 million dinars at the end of the 2022 financial year, which gives it full cover of the counterparty risk on these commitments.
