Infrastructure is the bedrock of integration. Roads, ports, power grids and digital networks are what turn political visions of free trade areas into functioning markets. For the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development EBID, this reality has shaped its mission from the start. The Bank has emerged as the region's leading financier of infrastructure, steadily expanding its portfolio to knit together West Africa's economies and prepare them for the opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA.
By December 2024, EBID's cumulative interventions had reached UA 3.41bn 4.54bn across 318 projects, with nearly half channelled into infrastructure. From a modest UA 121m in 2004, the Bank's commitments have multiplied more than twentyfold, rising to UA 2.75bn for 194 active projects. "EBID has moved from being a modest fund into a fully-fledged regional development finance institution," notes one ECOWAS official. "Its ability to mobilise capital and deliver cross-border impact is a sign of West Africa's growing financial maturity."
Connecting marketsThis momentum is reflected in the Bank's recent approvals. In June 2025, EBID's board of directors signed off on new commitments worth 174m and 125m in sectors ranging from renewable energy and agriculture to education and transport. In Togo, the Bank is financing six vocational training centres expected to train nearly 3,500 learners each year, a direct response to youth unemployment and industrial skills gaps. In Guinea, more than 95m is being invested in three hydroelectric micro-power stations alongside 29m for modernising agricultural schools. In Cte d'Ivoire, a 25m facility for clinker imports will ease supply bottlenecks in a booming construction sector, while in Nigeria, a 100m loan is backing a 47-km stretch of the Lagos-Calabar motorway, a coastal corridor linking isolated agro-industrial zones and expanding trade along the Gulf of Guinea.