The debt of the Office des Céréales (OdC) vis-à-vis the Banque Nationale Agricole (BNA) reached a record TND 5.0 billion (3.8 percent of GDP) as of June 30 2023, around 30 percent of total BNA’s on-balance sheet commitments, says the Tunisia Economic Monitor, Fall 2023 entitled “Migration amid Challenging Economic Context,”published by the World Bank on Monday.
“Commitments rose by 3.9 percent compared to the end of 2022 and 12.3 percent compared to a year before.”
In addition, the State guarantees the entirety of OdC’s commitments against counterparty risk (comprising principal, interest, and commissions). At the same time the government is facing increasing difficulties to secure the necessary financing to OdC for the losses it incurs due to the cereal subsidies.
The financing of the OdC has had a significant impact on BNA’s cash position, with a negative balance of TND 5.1 billion at the end of June 2023, compared with TND 4.5 billion at the end of December 2022. Along with the growing lending exposure to other SOEs, this has likely
contributed to reduce BNA’s lending to other parties. As BNA credit to OdC grew almost 4-fold between 2019 and June 2023, credit to private clients grew only 12 percent over the same period, according to the WB report.
