The African Development Bank and the West African Development Bank (BOAD) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) defining a strategic partnership framework to co-finance the preparation of regional public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects in Africa involving at least one West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member state.
The agreement was signed on March 1 by BOAD President Serge Ekue and Solomon Quaynor, the African Development Bank's Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation.
In this strategic partnership, the African Development Bank will rely on its Special Fund of the New Partnership for Africa's Development Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPPF) and the BOAD will rely on its Regional Public-Private Partnership Project Development Unit (PPPDU).
The two institutions will cooperate to increase the availability of viable regional infrastructure projects in the transport, energy, water and information and communication technologies sectors.
The MOU, covering a period of five years, covers the identification, selection and prioritisation of potential regional infrastructure PPP projects, the execution of feasibility studies and the structuring of transactions. To this end, the two banks will jointly draw up a list of projects eligible to be co-financed for preparation and agree on the project components to be financed, the supervision of the studies and the disbursement methods. Both parties will cooperate through a range of mechanisms for the effective implementation of projects, programmes and activities related to their field of cooperation.
Several results are expected at the end of the partnership, including the creation of a list of regional projects likely to be developed jointly under the PPP model, the co-financing each year of preparation activities for at least two PPP infrastructure projects drawn from the list of projects, capacity building for at least two selected project sponsors or executing agencies, and the joint creation and management of a database on PPP infrastructure project financing in West Africa.
This partnership is expected to help both institutions and the WAEMU countries to rapidly build a pipeline of prepared, bankable and quality regional infrastructure projects as part of post-COVID-19 recovery infrastructure investments in the region. As a result, it will accelerate much-needed infrastructure investment to fill the financing gap widened by the pandemic's negative impacts.
Relations between the West African Development Bank and the African Development Bank are governed by a cooperation agreement signed in Abidjan on 21 February 1978. The African Development Bank is a shareholder and member of the BOAD Board of Directors.
About the West African Development Bank
The West African Development Bank is the development finance institution of the member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Created in 1973, its current shareholders include the eight WAEMU member states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo), their central bank (Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest-BCEAO), and several international institutions and non-regional states, including the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), Germany's state-owned development bank the KFW, France, Belgium, China, India, and Morocco. It is rated "BAA1" with a stable outlook by Moody's and "BBB" with a stable outlook by Fitch. Its headquarters are in Lomé, the capital of Togo. For more information: www.boad.org
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