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The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), which took over from the ECOWAS Fund, is now set to play a crucial role in the economic integration  of West Africa. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), based in Lomé, Togo, is the principal financial institution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

As a holding company, EBID operates through two subsidiaries, the ECOWAS Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the ECOWAS Regional Investment Bank (ERIB). ERDF focuses primarily on the public sector, while ERIB deals with the private and the commercial sectors.

EBID is also the financing bank for projects of the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) in the region. EBID plays a role similar to that played by the European Investment Bank within the European Union. ECOWAS was created in 1975 to provide member states with collective bargaining clout, to stimulate trade and investment within the community and to harmonise infrastructural projects such as roads and railways. It had become clear to West African leaders that there was strength in numbers, especially as the West African economic zone contained several small economies that were unlikely to make headway individually.           

The ECOWAS treaty was signed in Lagos on 28 May, 1975 and one of its aims was gradually to integrate the economies of the sub-region into a large and vibrant trading bloc. It was also an attempt to collectively attack poverty while simultaneously developing regulatory and infrastructural links. 

One of the significant features of ECOWAS is that the grouping contains a very wide diversity of economies in terms of size, development and resources. It is also a region that has been experiencing violent conflicts in some member states, although these have reduced considerably over the last decade. 

To its great credit, ECOWAS has not buried its head in the sand in the face of these challenges. It has been very active in conflict resolution and prevention through a combination of direct international and intense discussions at the highest political levels. 

As part of its brief to foster greater integration among member states EBID created, in conjunction with the African Development Bank, a Conflict Prevention Fund in 2004.  

At its inception in 1975, ECOWAS set up a Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development, commonly known as the ECOWAS Fund. This fund was directed mainly at the public sector and used to finance projects contributing to the greater integration of the region - for example, to provide access to ports for landlocked countries. 

In the 1990s, as globalisation spread, changing the traditional patterns of international trade, economic blocs acquired a new significance. For example, it was determined that investment risks, especially those posed by smaller economies, could be minimised through a regional approach, and economies that would have floundered on their own in an increasingly competitive world could be given a new lease of life by being allied to stronger regional economies. Furthermore, environmental issues could only be realistically dealt with on a regional basis, rather than by individual states. 

The nature of internal economies also changed considerably with the shift from state-owned organisations to privatisation. Privatisation often presents considerable technical problems and requires carefully modulated financing and direction by experts. 

With this in mind, the 1999 ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State and Government in Lomé decided to transform the ECOWAS Fund into the holding company EBID which, with its two subsidiaries, ERIB and ERDF, was to deal with the new realities. 

With this change, EBID added a private sector focus by responding to the multiple privatisations in the region and supporting the private sector as the engine of sustainable growth. At the same meeting West African leaders resolved to work towards creating a single entity out of ECOWAS and the Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), a grouping of eight francophone countries using a single currency, the CFA. All eight members of UEMOA are also members of ECOWAS. The goal is to marry the CFA with the ECO, the proposed single currency for The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, to set up a single monetary zone in the future. By bonding together to promote the free movement of people and goods, the coastal and landlocked countries will bolster each other's economies as well as the economy of the region. Through financing cross-border investments and projects, EBID is assisting West Africa to achieve this goal of greater co-operation, development and prosperity    [back]

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