BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. Côte d’Ivoire has officially become the 76th shareholder of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), TurkicWorld reports.
The country’s membership follows a request submitted in August 2023, which received approval from the EBRD Board of Governors in October.
This milestone comes after the EBRD’s 2023 Annual Meeting in Samarkand, where its Board of Governors agreed to amend the Agreement Establishing the EBRD. The amendment allows for a limited and incremental expansion of the Bank’s operations to sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq. Once ratified by a qualified majority of shareholders, the amendment will enable Côte d’Ivoire to become an EBRD country of operation. As a recipient country, Côte d’Ivoire would gain access to the Bank’s financial and policy support.
Welcoming the new shareholder, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso stated, "I am very happy to welcome Côte d’Ivoire as a shareholder of the Bank. Our objective is to launch our activities in sub-Saharan African countries in 2025, and we are looking forward to applying our expertise in supporting economic growth through private-sector development and policy dialogue."
Adama Coulibaly, Côte d’Ivoire’s Finance and Budget Minister, emphasized the significance of this development, saying, "Côte d’Ivoire’s accession to membership of the EBRD is a real opportunity for the country. It now has a new strategic partner with whom it can mobilize financing to implement the country’s development policy. Côte d’Ivoire intends to work with the EBRD to finance structural projects and tackle global challenges such as climate change. The EBRD will also be a financing catalyst for the country’s private sector, which the government has placed at the heart of its development policy."
With Côte d’Ivoire’s membership, the EBRD now has 74 national shareholders, alongside the European Union and the European Investment Bank.
