Sierra Leone, one of the member states of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), will be hosting the 17th meeting of Board of Governors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) on Monday 7th October, 2019, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Aberdeen, Freetown.
The meeting will bring together fifteen (15) ECOWAS Member States, which include: Sierra Leone Togo, Nigeria, Liberia, The Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Cote D’viore Guinea Bissau, Cameroun, Benin and Cape Verde. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development Board of Governors is made up of Ministers responsible for Finance and Economic Development in the fifteen ECOWAS countries, and the current Chair of the Board of Governors is Senegal, whose tenure of office will come to an end after the Board meeting in Freetown.
Sierra Leone, will automatically assume the new Chairmanship of the Bank until the next Board of Governors meeting in 2020, with no less a person than Sierra Leone’s current Minister of Finance, Hon. Jacob Jusu Saffa. It is expected that, Sierra Leone as the Chair of Board of Governor will create more opportunities for both public and private sectors to access funds from the bank for its development projects.
The Annual meeting of the Board of Governors is rotationally done alphabetically among the 15 member states.
The Bank is headed by a President, in the name of Bashir Mamnah Ifo, who was appointed on October 11th 2011, after serving as Vice President, Finance and Corporate Services from 2007. During the 13th Ordinary Session of the Board of Governors held in Bamako, Mali, on June 15, 2015, Mr. Ifo’s tenure was renewed for another term of four years, with effect from October 10, 2015. Mr. Ifo’s four year mandate will come to an end on 9th October, 2019.
The meeting in Freetown is much important as Mr. Ifo’s successor will emerge in that meeting where the Governors of the Bank will either vote or elect the President through consensus building process.
In appointing the President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), twenty candidates apply for the presidency. Later, seven candidates were shortlisted by the Directors of EBID. Out of the seven candidates shortlisted, they later emerge with three candidates and from amongst whom the news President of the Bank will emerge.
Currently, there are no projects and programmes that are financed by EBID in Sierra Leone. However, EBID has financed three projects in Sierra Leone; the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration, Modernization and expansion of network and telecommunication infrastructure of SIERRATEL and Solar Street Light in Freetown and 13 Communities in Sierra Leone. Also, the Government of Sierra Leone has requested the Bank to finance the Kono University of Science and Technology in an amount of USD50 million of which USD15 million will be used to finance the proposed Diagnostic Centre of Excellence.
ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) started operations on 1st January, 2004 as a holding company with two specialized subsidiaries: ECOWAS Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for financing the public sector and ECOWAS Regional Investment Bank (ERIB) for financing the private sector.
On the 16th June 2006, the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government agreed to the reorganization of the EBID Group into a single entity, with two windows: one for promoting the private sector, and the other for developing the public sector.
EBID has been operating under its current structure since January 2007. The headquarters of the Bank is in Lome, Togo Republic.
Salone to Host 17th Annual Board of Governors Meeting of ECOWAS Bank for Investment & Development
