To the editor, Euromoney
Dear sir,
In response to your article (“EBRD: There’s no place like home”, January 24), I feel it is important to make the following points:
1) The EBRD president/management did not fail to persuade the Bank’s shareholders a year ago to expand its remit to sub-Saharan Africa because that was not the question that was asked!
The shareholders were asked at the Dead Sea Annual Meeting in May 2018 to agree to a sequenced set of reviews: could the EBRD do more in its existing region of operations; and then should it consider expanding to countries outside its current geography, with sub-Saharan Africa being the obvious regional candidate.
The shareholders agreed to this sequence with the insertion between the two reviews of a “pre-feasibility” stage that would look at the capital available and EBRD’s place in the global development architecture before considering whether to give the “green light” to the full feasibility study of expansion.
2) The review of whether EBRD can do more (in terms of quality and quantity) in its existing region has nearly been completed and the answer is it can.