Mali ✦ Burkina Faso ✦ Niger Create An Investment Bank

I’m sure it’s my age but it’s also that I’m starting to unlearn the history I’ve been taught in school and through the News. Africa is a beautiful place, yes there are some struggling places but aren’t there places in all countries that are struggling – even here in the United States.

I am still learning but as of now Burkina Faso & Captain Ibrahim Traore have captured my attention. Along with my sister taking a DNA test and now I know that we are from Benin & Togo, Nigeria and Mali. With all of that I have been eager to learn more about Africa. The more I’ve learned the more I can see how many lies have been told about this beautiful continent and its people.

My focus in 2026 is to celebrate all the goodness of Africa, while continuing to learn the history (both the good and bad). It is exciting to start with a recent development within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Now the Sahel States consist of five countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Mauritania) with three of them forming this alliance.

In September 2023, the countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger formed a military and political pact which they called the “Alliance of Sahel States”. This pact was formed to combat Islamist threats (Al-Qaeda, ISIS), reject foreign intervention (especially French), and foster regional self-determination and unity. 

In December of 2025, this Alliance of Sahel States – the three countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger launched the Confederal Bank for Investment and Development (BCID-AES), a new regional investment bank capitalized at 500 billion CFA francs (around $895 million) to fund strategic infrastructure, energy, and agriculture projects, aiming for financial independence from Western-backed systems and supporting the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) bloc. This initiative signals a move towards self-reliance, pooling resources from the mineral-rich Sahel nations to finance development and asserting economic sovereignty.

It will be exciting to follow the developments of this investment bank throughout 2026.