Ghana and four other ECOWAS member countries have benefited from a USD 250 million fund from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).
The other beneficiary countries are Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
A copy of its release to the Ghana News Agency said the Board of Directors of EBID approved the fund to boost the oil and gas, energy, road infrastructure and agriculture sectors of member states.
The approvals are part of the intensified efforts by EBID to invest in key sectors to spur up post-COVID pandemic recovery and mitigate the impact of the Russian – Ukraine war on the Member States of ECOWAS.
The disclosure was made 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.
Dr Donkor observed that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian – Ukraine war has left many economies in tatters.
He said the current market conditions had compelled investors to seek premiums on investments in sub-Saharan Africa thereby increasing the cost of capital.
According to the President of EBID, this had resulted in dampening economic growth, the wide-spread balance of payments deficits, unfavourable terms of trade, depletion of central bank international reserves, fiscal deficits, and debt distress.
Dr Donkor stressed the need for EBID, as the financial arm of ECOWAS, to deepen its financial inter-mediation in all the critical sectors of the Member States to assist them to recover from the economic challenges.
Present at the session was Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, the Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission, who 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 mobilisation to transform the ECOWAS Communities.
The 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.
Based in Lomé, Togolese Republic, the Bank is committed to financing developmental projects and programs covering diverse initiatives from infrastructure and basic amenities, rural development and environment, industry, and social services sectors, through its private and public sector windows.
EBID intervenes through a long, medium, and short-term loans, equity participation, lines of credit, refinancing, financial engineering operations and related services.
Source:GNA