The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) is the financial institution established by the 15 Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Capo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
EBID emerged as a banking group (the EBID Group) after the transformation of the erstwhile Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Fund) in 1999.
[The ECOWAS Fund was established in 1975 at the same time as the erstwhile Executive Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (the present ECOWAS Commission) and commenced operations in 1979].
EBID started operations in 1999 as a holding company with two specialized subsidiaries:
- ECOWAS Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for financing the public sector;
- ECOWAS Regional Investment Bank (ERIB) for financing the private sector.
In 2006, the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government agreed to reorganize the EBID Group into one unified entity with two windows: one for promoting the private sector and the other, for developing the public sector in order to extend the services of the Bank to a wider range of stakeholders involved in sustainable economic development activities and programmes at national and regional levels.
The headquarters of the Bank is in Lomé.
Vision
To be the leading regional investment and development finance bank in West Africa, a powerful financial institution for private sector promotion and financing in the region, and an effective instrument for poverty alleviation, wealth creation and job promotion for the well-being of the people of the region.
Mission and objectives
The mission of EBID is to contribute towards creating the conditions capable of enhancing the emergence of an economically strong, industrialized and prosperous West Africa that is perfectly integrated both internally, and in the global economic system in order to benefit from the opportunities offered by in order to advantage of the opportunities and prospects offered by globalization. By virtue of its Articles of Association, the Bank aims to:
- Contribute to attaining the objectives of the Community by supporting infrastructure projects relating to regional integration or any other development projects in the public and private sectors;
- Assist in the development of the Community by funding special programmes.
Areas of interventions
Operational activities of EBID are intended to lay the foundation for the sustainable development of Member States of the Community through the financing of regional and national (public and private) projects.
The Bank operates primarily in the following areas:
- Infrastructure and Basic Amenities;
- Rural Development and Environment (irrigation, flood control, rural water supply, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, ecosystem protection, renewable energy, capacity building);
- Social Sector (vocational training, education, health, support to decentralization, municipal facilities);
- Industry (agro-industry, mining industry, other industries, technology transfer, technological innovation);
- Services (financial services, services related to information technology, financial engineering, hotels, etc.).
Modes of interventions
The Bank intervenes in the form of:
- Long, Medium and Short-Term Loans;
- Equity Participation;
- Granting of Lines of Credit and Putting in Place Framework Agreements for Refinancing;
- Issue and Guarantee of Loans, Debentures, Bonds and Other Securities;
- Financial Engineering Operations and Services.
For more information, please consult: www.bidc-ebid.org.