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By Maxwell Awumah\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ho, Oct. 14, GNA-Ghana and four other ECOWAS member countries have benefited from a\u00a0USD 250 million\u00a0fund from the\u00a0ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0other\u00a0beneficiary countries are Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A copy of its release to the Ghana News Agency said the Board of Directors of EBID\u00a0approved the fund to boost\u00a0the oil and gas, energy, road infrastructure and agriculture sectors\u00a0of\u00a0member states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 Ukraine war on the Member States of ECOWAS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The disclosure was made\u00a0by\u00a0Dr George Agyekum Donkor,\u00a0the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID,\u00a0at the just-ended 79th<\/sup>\u00a0session of the Board of Directors of the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Donkor observed that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian \u2013 Ukraine war has left many economies in tatters.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said the current market conditions had compelled investors to seek premiums on investments in sub-Saharan Africa thereby increasing the cost of capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Present at the session was\u00a0Damtien L. Tchintchibidja,\u00a0the Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission,\u00a0who lauded the tremendous impact of EBID\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n The EBID\u00a0is a leading regional investment and development bank, owned by the 15 ECOWAS Member States, namely, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.\u00a0<\/p>\n Based in Lom\u00e9, 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n EBID intervenes through a long, medium, and short-term loans, equity participation, lines of credit, refinancing, financial engineering operations and related services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n GNA\u00a0<\/p>\nRelated News<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n