MULTILATERAL and bilateral lenders on Wednesday made a series of pledges to support Cote d’Ivoire’s 2021-25 Development Plan totalling $26.1bn, Prime Minister Patrick Achi said.
The West Africa Development Bank pledged 1 billion euros, the African Development Bank $4.3bn, the World Bank $8.7bn and the Islamic Development Bank $2bn.
The European Union pledged 6 billion euros, and France pledged more than 4 billion euros.
Leaders of Cote d’Ivoire, one of West Africa’s largest economies and the world’s top cocoa producer, held a consultative meeting with investors and development partners in the administrative capital Abidjan on Wednesday to raise funds for the five-year programme.
‘The success we’ve seen is beyond what we expected. We had expected $15bn in pledges, we have received $26.1bn in total,’ Achi announced, adding that Cote d’Ivoire would be waiting for the pledges to be honoured.
The development plan will require $94.74bn, with $24.65bn expected to come from the public sector and $70.09bn – or 74 percent of the amount – from the private sector.
