GRAND BASSAM, Ivory Coast, March 16 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast
will inject 35 billion CFA francs ($59 million) to save state
bank Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne (CNCE), government
spokesman Bruno Kone said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.
The bank is wholly owned by the state and has been under
provisional administration since last June due to management
difficulties and payment problems.
"Given the role played by CNCE in providing access to the
country's banking sector, the cabinet has decided to provide
liquidity to facilitate the bank's restructuring," Kone said,
adding that the bank's poor results remained a concern.
He was speaking in the beach resort town of Grand Bassam,
east of the commercial capital Abidjan, following a cabinet
meeting held there in the wake of an attack by Islamist
militants on Sunday who killed 18 people.
CNCE has around 700,000 clients and must pay more than 800
salaries as well as other costs. Ivory Coast is the largest
economy in French-speaking West Africa and has grown rapidly
since a decade of political turmoil ended in 2011.
($1 = 592.2900 CFA francs)