• ECOWAS Bank unveils plan to boost agricultural industrialization in West Africa

• Region lacks midstream processing capacity; over 85% of crops exported raw

• DFIs, including AFD and EBID, to fund SMEs and strengthen farm-to-port links
  

George Agyekum Donkor, president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), and other institutional leaders presented guidelines to accelerate agricultural industrialization in West Africa.

The guidelines were discussed with partners at the fourth EBID President's Roundtable, held in Accra, Ghana, on November 24, 2025. The proposals mark a shift from years of repeated assessments that have not produced substantial progress on the ground.

The situation remains troubling. Nearly all cash crops produced in West Africa continue to be exported in raw form to Europe and Asia, where most processing takes place. The African Development Bank (AfDB) reports that only 12 to 15 percent of agricultural products are processed locally, with the remainder consumed raw or exported unprocessed. This pattern limits opportunities for value generation, tax revenue and industrial employment.

According to the participants, the region does not lack agricultural production. Instead, it lacks mid-stream industrial capacity to handle and process existing output. The main gaps involve Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) focused on primary processing, storage, drying and packaging units, and logistical infrastructure such as rural roads, pre-export warehouses and port facilities.

Regional bank leaders noted that these underdeveloped intermediate links are essential for connecting farms to factories and factories to ports. Their absence, they said, keeps the region in a raw material export model that generates limited wealth.

Development Finance Institutions Increase Efforts

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) plan to play a more active role in addressing these challenges. The French Development Agency (AFD), through Proparco, its subsidiary that finances the private sector in emerging markets, is focusing on two complementary approaches.

The first involves partnerships with commercial banks and private equity funds. “The goal is to provide capital and structural support to enable many SMEs, including agricultural ones, to scale up,” said Ange-Pascal Kouassi, Proparco's country representative for Ghana and Liberia.

The second approach involves direct investments in SMEs to strengthen their financial and operational capacity without a banking intermediary, a method considered essential for boosting agricultural sectors. Proparco finances food systems in Africa with 150 million euros each year, with 25 percent devoted to West Africa.

EBID plans to use its local expertise and its sustainable development mandate to catalyze regional investments. It can mobilize blended finance to attract private investors, use guarantee instruments to improve SME access to credit, and provide technical assistance to improve business performance, standards, and governance.

By targeting financing along the value chain, from farms to ports, EBID and its partners intend to establish the foundations for more inclusive industrialization, retain more value added in West Africa and support the effective implementation of the AfCFTA.

Esaïe Edoh