The 74th Session of the Board of Directors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) has approved €61,526,000 for projects in Benin, Burkina Faso and La Cote D’Ivoire.

The Session, which was held via videoconference, reviewed the activities of the Bank for the second quarter of 2021 and considered key public and private sector projects for funding within ECOWAS Member States, a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said.

The meeting also afforded management the opportunity to apprise the Board of important steps being taken to ensure the continued performance of the Bank within the context of the prevailing COVID-19 challenges and key strategies being executed to ensure that the mandate of the Bank is met.

At the end of the meeting, the Board approved several governance reviews proposed by management in addition to the approval for funding of seven identified projects, which had gone through all the credit processes of the Bank.

The approved projects include funding for the rehabilitation and construction of two (2) slaughterhouses in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, and the construction of three new modern abattoir facilities in Ouagadougou, all in Burkina Faso, at a cost of €26,400,000.

The project, it said, aimed at improving the living conditions of the population through the industrial processing of local raw materials from the livestock sub-sector.

“Additionally, approval was also granted for partial funding of the construction of a new seven million, seven hundred thousand euros (€7,700,000) flour factory project in Cotonou, Benin Republic, with an annual processing capacity of about ninety thousand (90,000) tons of wheat,” the statement said.

“Finally, the Board approved the construction and operation of a cocoa processing factory in San Pedro Cote d’Ivoire, in the amount of twenty-eight million fifty-six thousand euros (€28 056 000), which aims to locally grind at least 50 per cent of the country's production.”

The statement said the Board commended management on the key innovations in the areas of research and the execution of agreed strategies.

It pledged to provide the necessary support to fulfil the mandate of poverty alleviation, wealth creation and job promotion in the West African sub- region.

EBID is a leading regional investment and development institution, based in Lomé, Togo.

It has over the past four decades invested approximately US$2.8 billion in inter and intra-regional development programmes covering diverse initiatives from infrastructure and basic amenities, rural development and environment, industry, social sectors, and services.

It intervenes through long, medium, and short-term loans, equity participation, lines of credit, refinancing, financial engineering operations and services.