ECOWAS bank to support regional agriculture

The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) will provide US$ 100 million annually to support agricultural productivity in West Africa as part of the region's contribution towards resolving the ongoing food crisis.

This was one of the outcome of a one-day extraordinary meeting of the ECOWAS Ministers of Agriculture, Trade and Finance held at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja Monday.

According to a statement from the ECOWAS Commission in the Nigerian Federal capital which was made available to PANA here Tuesday, the ministers were also preoccupied with the escalating cost of basic food items in the region.

The bank support is part of the short-term measures agreed by the ministers who also directed the ECOWAS Commission to take the lead in mobilising international support to raise the US$ 2 billion required in emergency food support for the most vulnerable group, the 44.4 million people living in abject poverty in the region.

Other short-term measures agreed by the ministers was the need to invest US$ 4 billion between 2008 and 2010 to boost agricultural productivity, mostly in the form of input support for small family farms who constitute the backbone of the region's agriculture.

The Ministers said the elimination of existing obstacles to intra-regional movement of persons and goods would also contribute towards easing the prevailing spiraling cost of foodstuffs by ensuring easier access of community citizens to commodities produced in the region.