By Mark Longyen
The World Bank has invited representatives of the ECOWAS Small and Medium Enterprises (ESBC) to its 2025 spring meeting.
Dr Abdulrashid Yerima, ESBC President in a statement on Thursday, said the meeting would enable the two sides to discuss funding support for West African MSMEs.
According to him, they will discuss the modalities for a funding arrangement that will strengthen the MSMEs and improve their contributions to the economic development of the ECOWAS subregion.
Yerima said that this was the outcome of a meeting between an Executive Director of the World Bank, Mr Harold Tavares and a delegation of the Coalition in Sal Island, Cape Verde.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting in Sal was held on the margin of the meeting of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
The ESBC President said the Sal meeting identified potential specific areas of cooperation with the members of the coalition, such as the maritime, trade, real estate, creative economy and hospitality sectors.
He noted that such collaborations would boost their capacity so that they could contribute more effectively to the development of the economies of their member states.
Yerima said that the coalition also met with Dr Olavo Correia, Cape Verde’s Deputy Prime Minister, who also doubles as the Minister of Finance and Business Development, as well as Digital Economy.
He said that Correia, on his part, promised to invite the coalition members to participate in a business programme that would hold in the country between June and August 2025.
Correia, he said, pledged the country’s support and willingness to collaborate with the ESBC in the maritime and air transport sectors.
NAN also reports that ESBC embodies ECOWAS’ mission to create a unified economic space across the region that is aligned with the ECOWAS vision for regional integration.
The organization aims to facilitate cross-border trade and economic cooperation, strengthen the subregion’s economy to enhance the ECOWAS goals of inclusive growth.
ESBC also partners with private sector entities and donors, who share its vision of fostering SME growth and resilience in global markets and collectively provide critical resources and support for building a sustainable and competitive ecosystem for SME’s across West Africa.
