AfDB, ECOWAS Bank Sign Dual Currency Credit to Tackle Food Insecurity

By Adedapo Adesanya

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) have signed an agreement for a dual currency line of credit comprising $50 million and €50 million to support local agricultural businesses in West Africa.

The credit lines are expected to strengthen food security, economic growth, and employment generation.

The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID, Mr George Agyekum Donkor and Mr Solomon Quaynor, AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and industrialisation, formalised the agreement during a signing ceremony at the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The EBID President said, “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.”

This is the latest after the AfBD board of directors approved the dual currency line of credit for EBID early in 2023. The Africa Growing Together Fund, which is sponsored by China and managed by AfDB, will provide an additional $30 million in co-financing.

The three-and-a-half-year facility will enable EBID to offer direct financing to commercial banks and local businesses operating in the agriculture and soft commodity sector within its member states.

This aligns with EBID’s strategic aim to support local businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), local business cooperatives, and farmers in West Africa.

AfDB Vice President, Mr Quaynor said, “This agreement underscores our strong commitment to harnessing 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 partnership between EBID and the African Development Bank is part of increasing cooperation among African Development Finance Institutions to bridge trade finance gaps and direct much-needed funds to economically challenged countries and sectors.