To support regional agricultural enterprises in West Africa, the African Development Bank Group and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) have inked an agreement for a dual currency line of credit between $50 million and €50 million.
This is in line with EBID’s strategic goal of assisting regional companies, especially small and medium-sized firms (SMEs), regional business cooperatives, and farmers in West Africa. The credit lines are anticipated to improve economic expansion, job creation, and food security
The dual currency line of credit for EBID was approved by the board of directors of the African Development Bank early in 2023. A further $30 million in co-financing will be provided by the African Development Bank’s Africa Growing Together Fund.
With the help of the three-and-a-half-year facility, EBID will be able to provide local enterprises, commercial banks, and farmers in its member states with direct financing.
At a signing ceremony held at the African Development Bank’s Abidjan headquarters, Dr. George Agyekum Donkor, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID, and Solomon Quaynor, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialization, formally signed the agreement.
According to Dr. Donkor, “This credit facility illustrates EBID’s continued efforts to mobilise adequate resources to honour its commitment to the region’s transformation agenda through supporting and investing in key sectors, in this case, the agribusiness industry.”
Vice President Quaynor said, “This agreement underscores our strong commitment to harness the continent’s limited resources to deliver, with speed and at scale, quality investments to help address the ever-increasing trade finance gap in Africa while working with strategic regional partners like EBID and, through you, local commercial banks.”
The collaboration between EBID and the African Development Bank shows the growing need for investment, innovation, policy reform, and institutional change. It also shows how these factors may make the transformation of the agri-food sector a driver for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
In order to deliver public goods that can increase the vitality of the agricultural sector, public investment in agriculture is required. The most recent agreement will be able to provide adequate funding to the agricultural industry to fight food insecurity and alleviate poverty.
Author
