In 2017, Sub-Saharan Africa began an economic recovery, benefiting from stronger global growth, rising commodity prices, and improved market access. Economic activity in the region grew by 2.8%, compared to 1.4% in 2016.
At the WAEMU level, economic performance strengthened further. GDP growth reached 6.7%, up from 6.5% in 2016, reflecting the dynamism of trade, services, and the construction sector, as well as strong agricultural production in most member states.
In this context, the WADB continued to support the Union’s economies with loans totalling CFAF 557.6 billion, up 11.4% on 2016. Long- and medium-term financing amounted to CFAF 477.9 billion, while CFAF 71.1 billion was devoted to short-term operations aimed at better supporting economic operators in meeting their diverse financing needs. In addition, CFAF 8.6 billion was invested in banks and businesses.
This financing will contribute to the implementation of major investment projects in priority sectors such as energy, agriculture, transport, road, port and airport infrastructure and business cycle management.
The year’s activities included a regional project to promote social housing, launched by the WADB with the support of the World Bank Group. In view of the difficulties affecting access to housing for the majority of the Union’s citizens, the Bank worked towards the launch of the WAEMU/World Bank project to promote the financing of « affordable » housing. The objectives of this project are: i) to support 50,000 new social mortgage loans over five (05) years; ii) to provide technical assistance to improve regional know-how in the technical and financial engineering of national social housing programmes. The agreements signed cover a total amount of
