This text was produced with the help of ECOWAS Financial institution for Funding and Improvement
The ECOWAS Financial institution for Funding and Improvement (EBID) has signed a US$10 million mortgage facility with Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone; a transfer designed to strengthen the nation’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector and promote inclusive financial progress. The settlement was formalised on 27 October 2025 by Dr George Agyekum Donkor, President and Chairman of the Board of Administrators of EBID, and Mr Pa Ousman Njie, Managing Director of Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone.
Underneath the brand new facility, Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone will prolong its attain to SMEs and company shoppers throughout key productive sectors of the economic system, with a specific emphasis on women-led and youth-driven enterprises. The initiative goals to deal with one among Sierra Leone’s persistent improvement challenges — restricted entry to reasonably priced credit score — whereas stimulating entrepreneurship and job creation.
Talking on the signing ceremony, Dr Donkor underlined the essential function of SMEs in shaping regional resilience and competitiveness. “Supporting a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, significantly in productive sectors equivalent to agriculture and agribusiness, is vital to enhancing meals safety, constructing native industries, and advancing regional worth addition,” he stated. “By channelling long-term, reasonably priced financing to the true economic system, EBID and Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone are equipping companies with the sources they should scale up operations, broaden into regional markets, and enhance livelihoods.”
Strengthening the non-public sector
For Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone, the partnership represents a strategic alternative to deepen its footprint within the nation’s non-public sector improvement agenda. Managing Director Pa Ousman Njie described the settlement as a catalyst for significant influence throughout communities. “With prudent credit score allocation, sturdy threat administration, and a deal with high-potential sectors, Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone goals to empower native worth creation, broaden monetary inclusion, and stimulate impactful financial exercise,” he stated.
Mr Njie added that the financing will likely be directed in the direction of sectors with sturdy multiplier results — together with agriculture, mild manufacturing, commerce, and providers — the place SMEs typically battle to safe the capital required to develop sustainably.
A regional improvement focus
The brand new facility kinds a part of EBID’s broader mission to advertise sustainable financial transformation throughout the ECOWAS area. With a rising portfolio that spans each private and non-private sector operations, the regional improvement financial institution has grow to be a key accomplice for West African economies in search of to bridge infrastructure gaps, improve productiveness, and construct resilience in opposition to exterior shocks.
In recent times, EBID has stepped up its engagement with industrial and improvement banks to broaden entry to finance for SMEs — broadly recognised because the spine of the area’s economies, accounting for a lot of the employment and contributing considerably to GDP.
“This partnership with Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone reaffirms EBID’s dedication to deepening monetary intermediation and supporting establishments that share our imaginative and prescient of a affluent, self-reliant West Africa,” Dr Donkor famous. “We’ll proceed to leverage such collaborations to advance regional integration and speed up inclusive progress.”
Empowering native enterprise
For Sierra Leone, the place SMEs account for over 90% of companies however face persistent financing constraints, the partnership indicators renewed optimism for a extra dynamic non-public sector. By prioritising girls and younger entrepreneurs, the initiative additionally aligns with nationwide and regional methods aimed toward selling gender equality, youth empowerment, and innovation-driven progress.
As EBID consolidates its regional footprint and Vista Financial institution Sierra Leone scales its SME portfolio, each establishments are demonstrating how strategic monetary cooperation can translate into tangible advantages for communities and economies alike.
Within the phrases of Dr Donkor, “Improvement finance should finally be about influence — about folks. It’s by partnerships like this that we are able to empower the following technology of African entrepreneurs to create the wealth, jobs, and alternatives that our continent wants.”
