The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) Board of Directors has approved a total of $250 million for five ECOWAS member states.
The facility will help West Africa’s oil and gas, energy, road infrastructure, and agricultural sectors.
According to an EBID statement distributed to the Ghana News Agency, the beneficiary countries are Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
It said the approvals were part of the intensified efforts by EBID to invest in key sectors to spur post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery and mitigate the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war on the Member States of ECOWAS.
This was disclosed by Dr George Agyekum Donkor, the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID, at the just ended 79th session of the Board of Directors of the Bank.
In his opening statement, Dr. Donkor observed that the impact of the COVID pandemic and the ongoing Russian–Ukraine war have left many economies in tatters. He indicated that the current market conditions had compelled investors to seek a premium on investments in sub-Saharan Africa, thereby increasing the cost of capital.
According to the EBID President, this has resulted in slowing economic growth, wide-spread balance-of-payments deficits, unfavorable trade terms, depletion of central bank international reserves, fiscal deficits, and debt distress.
Therefore, Dr Donkor reiterated the need for EBID, as the financial arm of ECOWAS, to deepen its financial intermediation in all the critical sectors of the Member States to assist them in recovering from the economic challenges.
The statement said Madam Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, the Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission who was present at the session, lauded the tremendous impact of EBID’s interventions in the sub-region and assured the Bank of the commitment of the new administration of the ECOWAS Commission to collaborate and support EBID in its multifarious activities, especially in the area of resource mobilization to transform the ECOWAS communities.
EBID is a leading regional investment and development bank, owned by the 15 ECOWAS Member States, namely, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
The Bank, headquartered in Lomé, Togo, is dedicated to financing development projects and programs spanning infrastructure and basic amenities, rural development and environment, industry, and social services sectors through its private and public sector windows.
Through long-, medium-, and short-term loans, equity participation, lines of credit, refinancing, financial engineering operations, and related services, EBID makes interventions.
