Since you were appointed the first President of the EBID Group in 2002, what have been your priorities in terms of policy?
After my nomination, we defined our strategic positioning and set very specific goals for the bank. First of all we wanted to make EBID a regional financial institution to facilitate investment and the financing of projects in West Africa.
We also wanted to create a powerful body which would enable and encourage greater financing to the private sector, resulting in wealth creation as well as promoting employment in the sub-region.Strategically speaking, our aim is to focus on infrastructure. There are several institutions operating in the sub-region and we complement each other. We are the financial arm of ECOWAS and for this reason we tend to focus on infrastructural projects integrating the whole region. We are very careful in the projects we choose and we primarily promote multilateral projects which benefit several countries at once.
Is it possible to simultaneously work towards development and poverty alleviation on the one hand and yet provide services to the commercial world on the other?
We have two operational arms, ERDF and ERIB - one focusing on development projects and the other on private sector projects. ERDF finances public sector projects which focus on issues such as poverty reduction and basic infrastructural development. In the long term we will be offering 10% of our shares to development partners.ERIB is totally dedicated to the financing of projects in the private sector. It has the capacity and capability to handle complex operations to meet the demands of the private sector and the needs of the business community.We are opening up 49% of ERIB's share capital to the public and will invite financial institutions (pension funds, banks, insurance companies) as well as the general public to participate.We started operating under our new structure in 2004 and since then we have financed some nine projects. We are strategically interested in energy, telecommunications and transport. For example, we co-financed a project with the African Development Bank (ADB) and Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement (BOAD) and guaranteed a bond issue.In the private sector, we are involved in projects in oil and gas, banking and the hotel industry.
Can you shed more light on some of the projects?
Our projects are varied. Energy: the Desert Connection to link Nigeria-Benin-Togo, which was co-financed with the ADB and BOAD. Infrastructure: Project Kinapa, to turn the Cross River State in Nigeria into an international commercial and tourism hub. Electricity: the town of Conakry in Guinea. Transport: a road link between Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Ports: we are guarantors of a CAF10bn bond issue for the port of Dakar. Banking: creation of an investment bank in Benin. Shipping: the Ecomarine project, a large-scale shipping project involving all of West Africa.
What is the minimum value at which you start considering projects in the private sector?
We finance projects starting at $1m. We are planning to give local banks credit facilities to redistribute to small and medium size projects.
How do you see Ecowas in another five years, given the fact that some member countries are currently gripped in internal conflict?
For the last 20 years the region has been dogged with internal conflicts. We now welcome the end of these conflicts and hope that the situation in Côte d'Ivoire would also be resolved soon. Our institution will help the reconstruction of Liberia and Sierra Leone.There are great business and investment opportunities to re-start the economies of these countries. Infrastructure has to be rebuilt, improved and extended. There is a need to re-establish the confidence of the private sector. There are whole economies to be revived and we need to help the private sector to do so. Our role is to create the necessary conditions to allow West Africa to develop into a strong economic bloc. We can help achieve this by financing projects which would increase the competitiveness of the sub-region. We have placed strategic emphasis on improving infrastructure, particularly for energy, transport and telecommunications. These constitute a large segment of production costs. By improving these sectors, we will effectively be reducing the cost base of the production of goods and making the private sector more competitive.
What is the impact for the sub-region of the rise in the price of
oil?
What is sure is that more and more countries in West Africa are becoming oil producers and will benefit from the higher price of oil.On the other hand one must not underestimate the impact of the high price of oil on the competitiveness of the region. That is why we are working hard on improving infrastructure to lower costs. And that works both ways. The high price of oil will benefit certain countries but will also bring problems. It is our role to ensure that the whole region benefits, not just one country or one sector.
What is the extent of your relationship with NEPAD? Please outline areas of cooperation?
NEPAD started off by dividing Africa into five regional blocs, one of which is West Africa. We are in constant dialogue and working hand in hand with the NEPAD headquarters in South Africa. In fact the NEPAD proposals for development in West Africa were in great part based on ECOWAS' own programmes.
Do you complement or compete with other financial institutions?
There is a number of international financial institutions operating in the region: African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement, Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement and the World Bank.In general, these financial institutions are only interested in major projects and large transactions. In some cases, we work hand in hand with them and co-finance projects. We are not at all in competition with them. For example, BOAD only deals with the French speaking countries of West Africa, whereas we are involved with all 15 countries under the ECOWAS umbrella and, therefore, we cover a much larger geographical area, including important countries such as Nigeria and Ghana. Even when we do get involved in the French speaking West African countries, the needs are so great that we often get involved in co-financing projects with BOAD and other financial institutions. The commercial banks are generally much more focused on the import-export business and have little involvement in medium and long term financing, as they often do not have the capacity for this. What we envisage in the near future is to offer these commercial banks credit facilities to enable them to help smaller businesses. This is another reason why our activities are complementary. [back]
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