The President of the West African Development Bank (Banque Ouest Africaine de Developpement, BOAD), Mr Christian Adovelande, held a press conference at the BOAD headquarters in Lome, Togo, to chart the course of the organisation in the last quarter of the year, targeting $500m in the last quarter of 2015.

The conference was well attended by journalists of West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), as well as the international media.

The core of the discussions focused on BOAD’s ambitions for the coming years, as expressed in its Strategic Plan for 2015 to 2019, addressed in relation to two recent events: obtaining an international quality rating and BOAD accreditation as a regional implementation agent of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Mr Adovelande, expressed that with increased international credibility, there is the possibility of a change in scale which confronts BOAD today. The international rating and accreditation with Global Environment Facility (GEF), should be placed within the context of implementing BOAD's Strategic Plan for 2015 to 2019.

Ceoafrica reliably gathered that with 913 billion worth of CFA funds raised to date, BOAD is positioned as the first non-sovereign issuer in the WAEMU zone. However, the international financial markets will become, by volume, the main borrowing source for BOAD. President Adovelande has therefore announced that BOAD plans to raise $500 million in the markets over the final quarter of 2015.