President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), Dr. George Agyekum Nana Donko, and Deputy Director of the French Development Agency (AFD), Maréva Matar have signed a loan facility for an amount of 50 million Euros at EBID's headquarters.

The facility is to support EBID in the implementation of its strategic plan and finance a sustainable economic transition within the ECOWAS region.

This assistance is coupled with a technical assistance grant of 400,000 Euros (about FCFA 263 million).

The two institutions, through this loan agreement, intend to promote greater economic and financial integration in the West African sub-region and thus contribute to the achievement of ECOWAS Vision 2020.

To start with, the purpose of the 50 million euro line of credit from AFD to EBID is to contribute to financing economic recovery investments in line with the Agenda 2030 on sustainable development for the benefit of ECOWAS Member States and the business community.

Furthermore, the 400,000-euro grant will support EBID's capacity building approach through key activities for the implementation of its strategic plan and the development of a responsible financial approach.

More specifically in a post-Covid context, this facility extended by AFD will enable EBID to finance private investors for economic recovery in the region of 100 million euros.

The signing of this 1st line of credit reflects the historic partnership between AFD and EBID which until now was involved an initial technical assistance grant of 500.000 euros.

This new partnership dynamic will particularly be illustrated by the participation of EBID and AFD in the Public Development Banks Summit to be held in Paris from November 10 to 12.

Organized in partnership with the Paris Peace Forum, this major event is expected to bring together all Public Development Banks (BPD) for the first time.

Its objective is to provide a key platform to encourage these institutions to work together to unlock their full potential and to maximize investments that are consistent with the multilateral sustainable development agenda.