A total of USD 250 million has been granted by the board of directors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) for Ghana and four other member states to help the oil and gas, energy, road infrastructure, and agricultural sectors of West Africa.

Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone are the other recipients.

The approvals are a part of EBID's stepped-up efforts to invest in important industries to boost recovery from the COVID-19 epidemic and lessen the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on ECOWAS member states.

This was disclosed by the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID, Dr George Agyekum Donkor at the just ended 79th session of the Board of Directors of the Bank.

In his opening statement, Dr Donkor observed that the impact of the COVID pandemic and ongoing Russian – Ukraine war have left many economies in tatters. He indicated that the current market conditions have compelled investors to seek premium on investments in sub-Saharan Africa thereby increasing the cost of capital.

According to the President of EBID, this has resulted in dampening economic growth, wide-spread balance of payments deficits, unfavourable terms of trade, depletion of central bank international reserves, fiscal deficits, and debt distress. Therefore, Dr Donkor stressed the need for EBID, as the financial arm of ECOWAS, to deepen its financial intermediation in all the critical sectors of the Member States to assist them to recover from the economic challenges.

Present at the session was the Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission, Her Excellency Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, 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 mobilization to transform the ECOWAS Communities.