The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) have agreed to increase the capital of the Cultural Industries Guarantee Fund to €1 300 000 - including a contribution of € 650 000 from EBID - and to extend its coverage to the fifteen Member States of the Economic Community of West African States * (ECOWAS), eleven of which are members of OIF.

The decision led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding in Cotonou (Benin) on 14 September 2009 by Mr Clément Duhaime, Director of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), and Mr Christian Adovelande, President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID). The agreement defines the terms of the new partnership for the management of the Fund.

The Cultural Industries Guarantee Fund is an initiative introduced by OIF in 2003 to facilitate the funding of cultural enterprises and projects in the seven francophone countries of West Africa, Morocco and Tunisia. The Fund which will work with financial institutions will enable cultural enterprises to access funding under favourable conditions. The Fund, which does not provide credit but rather guarantees it, will serve as catalyst within a market mechanism.

Thus, the Cultural Industries Guarantee Fund will contribute to promote diversity of cultural expression. It also attests to the determination of Francophony to work towards the protection and development of cultural industries in line with its objectives.

*ECOWAS Member States comprise Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo