The military-led governments of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso plan to allocate a portion of their national revenues to a newly established investment bank.
- Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso plan to establish an investment bank funded by a portion of national revenues.
- They aim to reduce reliance on foreign donors and focus on self-directed development agendas.
- Each country will contribute approximately 5% of tax revenues to capitalize the bank.
The military-led governments of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso plan to allocate a portion of their national revenues to a newly established investment bank.
This is part of a broader effort to reduce their dependence on foreign donors and steer their development agendas, Bloomberg reported.
Each country will contribute around 5% of tax revenues to capitalise the regional lender, Serge Balima, an adviser to Burkina Faso’s junta leader Ibrahim Traoré, said.
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“We’ll pool resources from a set of taxes imposed in each state. Balima explained. “Together, these funds will form the capital needed to create the bank, which will then be used to finance development projects.”
The move marks the latest in a series of coordinated economic initiatives by the three countries, which exited the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) earlier this year to form the Alliance of Sahel States.
Since then, the bloc has announced joint plans to co-develop mining, energy, and infrastructure projects and is pursuing economic sovereignty through resource sharing and new fiscal strategies.
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The trio has also adopted revised natural resource codes aimed at boosting state ownership in mining ventures. In some cases, they have gone further, nationalising underperforming or non-compliant operations.
Their shift away from ECOWAS and traditional Western allies stems in part from what the bloc perceives as a lack of adequate support in its prolonged battle against Islamist insurgents.
Disillusioned with France and the United States, the three countries have severed military and diplomatic ties with their former allies, while forging new partnerships with Russia, Iran, and Turkey.
