West Africa’s regional development bank posted its strongest operational results in years at its annual meeting in Accra last week, even as member-states were confronted with the uncomfortable reality that most have failed to meet their agreed capital obligations, leaving the institution short of the resources it needs to match the scale of the region’s needs.
The 24th Annual General Meeting of the Board of Governors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) was held on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra.
The keynote, delivered by Seth Terkper, Presidential Advisor on the Economy, on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama, who was in Lyon attending the 2026 One Health Summit, framed the gathering as a moment of reckoning. President Mahama said the gathering had come at a critical time when Africa must move beyond political independence towards economic self-reliance and resilience, noting that tightening global financial conditions and heightened risk sensitivity continued to limit access to affordable long-term financing for many African countries.
His prescription was direct: EBID must evolve from a bank of support to a bank of scale, with West Africa’s transformation financed increasingly from within the region rather than through external creditors. Terkper urged ECOWAS to leverage large stock exchanges in the sub-region as drivers for development finance mobilisation to secure the capital needed for regional infrastructure development.
A Strong Year, With a Notable Gap
Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, outgoing Chairman of the EBID Board of Governors, presented a picture of institutional resilience alongside an accountability deficit. The Bank’s balance sheet expanded from US$1.97 billion in 2024 to US$2.39 billion at end-2025, while profitability rose 13.3 percent to US$9.75 million. Project approvals increased by 50 percent and commitments surged by over 83 percent to US$813.77 million, with energy and transport infrastructure the primary beneficiaries.
New disbursements in 2025 reached US$722.69 million, a 47.71 percent increase on the prior year.
Yet the capital commitment picture told a different story. A 2022 Board decision had raised EBID’s authorised capital and called for a third tranche of subscriptions worth US$411.4 million, with a December 2025 deadline. To date, only Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Togo had fully met their obligations, leaving approximately US$256 million in arrears. “Timely capital payments are critical. They strengthen EBID’s leverage and sustains its growth and impact across our region,” Dr. Forson said.
Strategy for 2026 to 2030
EBID President Dr. George Agyekum Donkor outlined the Bank’s GRO Strategy for 2026 to 2030, anchored on growth, resilience and optimisation, allocating at least 63 percent of new commitments to private enterprises and over 41 percent to climate and social projects.
The Bank is targeting the mobilisation of approximately US$2 billion to diversify its funding base, and is pursuing strategic partnerships with the African Development Bank and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa. A second regional office is planned for Abuja in 2026, following the opening of an office in Abidjan.
The urgency behind calls to scale is grounded in a structural gap that remains wide. West Africa’s annual infrastructure financing deficit was estimated at between US$20 billion and US$36 billion as recently as 2022, a figure that has widened as climate adaptation, energy transition, and digital connectivity demands have accelerated.
