The Board of Governors of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) which comprises Finance Ministers from the 15-Member States of ECOWAS has renewed the tenure of the President of the Bank, Mr. Bashir Mamman IFO for another term of four years.
According to a statement, the decision was taken during the 13th ordinary session of the Board held in Bamako, Republic of Mali recently.
The Board renewed the tenure of the President, Mr. IFO, for a final term of four years with effect from 10 October 2015.
Mr. IFO is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID and has headed the Bank since October 2011.
EBID is the financial arm of the Economic Community of West African States comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, la Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
The Bank intervenes in various sectors of activity within the 15-Member States including transport, infrastructure, telecommunications, rural development, industry, energy, the social and services sectors.
The statement signed by Ag. Head of Communication and Marketing Division, Ogechi Ogan Ekandem explained that EBID emerged from the transformation of the ECOWAS Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development (ECOWAS Fund) which was set up at the same time as the ECOWAS Secretariat, the present ECOWAS Commission, on May 28 1975, to fund development projects and programmes capable of fostering the socio-economic development of Member States within the framework of regional integration.
Deliberations during the meeting in Bamako indicated that as at 31 December 2014, the net total commitment of EBID was in the amount of approximately, $1.3billion for the financing of 141 projects distributed between the public sector (76) and private sector (65) representing, 58.5% and 41.5% of commitments respectively.
Prior to the renewal of Mr. Ifos’ tenure, the Board of Governors examined the Bank’s 2014 activity which it considered to be satisfactory, approved the financial statements and commended the Management and staff of EBID for the progress achieved.
