West Africa to received a total of US$1.27 billion from EU

The European Commission on Monday announced a new funding for cooperation with the West African region, which covers a total of 1.15 billion euros (1.27 billion U.S. dollars) until 2020.

According to a Commission press release, the so-called “regional indicative program” under the 11th European development fund will focus on three areas of cooperation, which are peace and security, regional economic integration and trade, and sustainable development of natural resources and biodiversity.

European Commissioner for international cooperation and development, Neven Mimica, said the signing of the funding agreement was the “ambitious starting point for preparing new, concrete projects,” and the new funding doubled the support from the last programming period.

The previous regional program (2008-2013) for West Africa had a budget of 595 million euros.

According the press release, 16 countries benefit from the EU-West Africa regional indicative program, which are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Enditem