• Japanese bank SMBC provides €200 million ($230 million) to BOAD
• Funds will support agriculture campaigns and fuel supply in WAEMU
• BOAD also approves CFA206 billion in new sector financing

The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has secured a new international financing line, raising fresh funds to support key sectors across the WAEMU region.

The bank announced on Friday, March 27, after a board meeting in Dakar, that it had obtained a €200 million credit line—about $230 million—from Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), one of the country’s largest banks.

This is not the first partnership between the two institutions. In 2023, SMBC had already extended a €100 million facility to support BOAD’s operations in the region.

The new funding is aimed at covering two critical needs for WAEMU economies.

On the agricultural side, the funds will help finance seasonal campaigns, including the purchase of fertilizers and seeds, as well as the marketing of key cash crops such as cotton, cocoa, and cashew nuts. On the energy side, the financing will support the import and distribution of petroleum products and gas across member states, where supply pressures remain high.

During the same Dakar session, BOAD approved additional financing totaling CFA206 billion across these sectors.

This includes CFA50 billion for Burkina Faso’s cotton sector, CFA25 billion for Mali’s, and CFA29.7 billion for the Wassoulou project, a cross-border irrigation scheme involving Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Guinea. Another CFA6 billion was allocated to modernize the Label d’Or shea processing plant in Togo.

In the hydrocarbons sector, CFA45 billion was approved for Burkina Faso’s national hydrocarbons company SONABHY, and CFA50 billion for the northern Senegal gas pipeline.

Fiacre E. Kakpo