Luxembourg, 16/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to grant an 8 million euro loan on venture capital to finance three banana plantations in Cameroon belonging to the French group Cpmagnie Fruitiere: la Societe des Plantation Nouvelles du Penja, la Societe de Banaeraies de la M'Bome and Plantations du Haut Penja. Bananas are the country's third largest export product. The loan will serve to finance measures aimed at improving productivity, especially the selection of the variety of bananas offering higher yields and strengthening the infrastructures of the plantations, and to make production environmentally-friendly. The EIB loan will also lead to derived investments in the social area (schools, medical dispensaries and installations). The remuneration of the project is linked to the project's results. This loan comes on top of the structural aid that the Commission grants the banana sector in Camroon.