ECOWAS consultative meeting on regional infrastructre financing

ECOWAS consultative meeting on regional infrastructre financing

September 7 – 8, 2023 – Accra, GHANA

In a quest to address the infrastructure deficit faced by the ECOWAS region, the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State during its 60th Summit held in December 2021 approved the ECOWAS Regional Infrastructure Master Plan. This masterplan contains 201 integrated regional projects (146 regional investment projects and 55 soft projects) covering the Energy, ICT, Transport and Water Sectors and is estimated at $131 billion.

Mindful of the huge capital outlay required for the implementation of the Masterplan, there is clearly an urgent need for a concerted regional effort to confront this challenge of sustainable infrastructure financing. To this end, the PPDU convened a Consultative Meeting on Regional Infrastructure Financing on 7-8 September 2023 in Accra, Ghana. The meeting brought together the key actors in infrastructure resource mobilization from ECOWAS Member States and Development Partners in order to discuss on modalities of facilitating access to infrastructure finance. The meeting also enabled Development Partners to apprise the key actors on innovative financing instruments such as Green Financing.

The meeting was attended by experts of Ministries Finance and Investment / Economic Planning of ECOWAS Member States, Development Partners (IsDB, AfDB, BOAD, EBID), Regional Organizations (OMVG, OMVS) and the ECOWAS Commission.

The meeting welcome remarks were delivered by the PPDU Head of Project Preparation Division – Mr Kebba FYE- on behalf of the Honourable Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalization. Mr. David COLLISSON, Director of Public Investment and Assets delivered the formal opening statement on behalf of the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Ghana.

The meeting also included detailed presentations from Islamic Development Bank. African Development Bank, West African Development Bank and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development on their scope of infrastructure financing in the ECOWAS region.

The meeting discussed on a number of thematic issues on regional infrastructure finance and made a number of recommendations. Key among these is the need to integrate climate change and sustainable development into infrastructure projects in order to benefit from green financing opportunities. Furthermore, there was a strong recommendation for Development Banks and Regional Partners to leverage their interventions in the region on the ECOWAS Regional Infrastructure Masterplan.

The meeting provided a rich forum for reflection on the challenges on regional infrastructure finance and participants called for a concerted regional effort to ensure the recommendations made are implemented.