Banks and development finance institutions operating in the West Africa region were brought together for a pre-summit organized at the initiative of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), of the French Development Agency (AFD) and the General Secretariat of the Finance en Commun Summit, reports a press release sent to the AIP.

The virtual meeting, held on Friday, October 22, 2020, around the theme "Development banks in the face of the crisis: countercyclical response and sustainable recovery", comes as a prelude to the first global summit bringing together public development banks, scheduled for November 10 to 12, 2020 in Paris, and organized in partnership with the Paris Peace Forum.

This pre-summit, which was an important event in the particular post-Covid-19 context, aimed to identify the main topics of interest, expectations and proposals concerning the role of development banks and to consider desirable developments.

In particular, it is explained, it will have made it possible to highlight the countercyclical capacity of development banks to act in times of crisis (such as that of COVID-19) and to define the development bank of tomorrow, which will be able to support the ecological and social transitions of our societies. The conclusions will serve as essential inputs for the Joint Finance Summit.

In addition to representatives and partners of BOAD and AFD operating in West Africa, this pre-summit brought together key stakeholders. The ministries of finance of several countries in the region, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AIAFD), the WAEMU Commission and public development banks such as the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and the National Bank for Development economic development (BNDE) of Senegal.

"This pre-summit is an important moment for us. It offers the West African region a platform to feed the reflection around a movement of "finance in common" whose major objective is to embark all the actors of finance towards investments compatible with the fight against climate change, inequalities and more generally the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)", stressed the Director General of the French Development Agency (AFD) and President of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC), Rémy Rioux.

"West Africa and the region's public development banks, which are showing a certain dynamism, are eagerly awaited at the Finance in Common Summit next November. Especially since they have the experience of successful countercyclical responses, particularly in the face of the food and energy crises of the 2000s," he added.