The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development: Major Achievements and Challenges

The chapter presents an overview of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID). It discusses the evolution and mandate, ownership and membership, funding and operations, significant achievements and challenges of the bank. The bank has a core mandate to support and finance the ECOWAS region's private and public sectors. It is also an effective tool for generating wealth, reducing poverty, and improving the well-being of the region's people. The chapter reveals that EBID has a corporate mandate to grant loans and guarantees to finance projects and investment programs for the economic and social development of the member states. The bank's funding sources help support its target industries, including the agro-industry, mining, financial services, Information Technology services, and hospitality services (e.g., hotels, etc.). EBID's trade finance interventions aim to develop market and finance trade flows among the member states and their trading partners in the international market. The major challenge of the bank is resource mobilization at competitive pricing to support project implementation in the priority sectors in the ECOWAS sub-region.