The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Parliament) has pledged to work with partners to strengthen security in the sub region and enhance the macroeconomic growth variables of member countries.
Speaker of the Parliament, Moustapha Cisse Lo, gave this assurance while giving his welcome address at the opening session of the 2019 First Ordinary Session of the regional legislature on Wednesday in Abuja, and disclosed that the institution had made giant strides in curtailing insecurity and strengthening political stability in the ECOWAS region.
Cisse Lo, while congratulating President Muhammadu Buhari on his support and selfless commitment towards the progress of the ECOWAS Community, noted that ECOWAS was improving on free movements of goods in the region for the benefit of its economy and member states.
He also applauded the synergy between the Parliament and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) towards the fight against impediments that could threaten progress in the region.
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, in his remarks, highlighted the concerns of the region at the mounting security threats with grave incidents recorded in some countries.
“Several countries have suffered deadly attacks against their peaceful citizens. We offer our condolences to the bereaved families, government and people of these sister countries. The Community will, in this regard, continue working with its partners to stabilize and protect the region from terrorism, piracy, cross-border crimes, inter-ethnic clashes among others,” he said.
He noted that it had become incumbent on the region to tackle the menace of youth unemployment, migration, and epidemiology diseases, among others.
Kasi Brou pointed out that the region’s economic prospects are promising given the good performance of major macroeconomic indicators. ” The region will continue effort to consolidate the regional economy with several achievements which will be presented in the next few days,” he said.
He also called on all member countries to consolidate on the gains of democracy in the region even as he welcomed the “successful conduct of presidential elections this year in two of our member states, namely the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Senegal.”
The Commission is also to evolve strategies to key into the African Development Bank (AFDB) Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones and any other such programmes and initiatives championed by our developmental partners (local and international) that will further bring socio-economic development to the zone, as well as endeavor to collaborate with willing partners to facilitate achievement of the Commission’s goals as enunciated in the Act establishing the Commission.
He urged them to coordinate and promote civil-military confidence building and put in stabilisation measures that would ensure continued peace and social harmony as well as avoid the re-occurrence of violence in the zone.
The President assured the Commission that government shall continue to provide all the necessary enabling conditions that would facilitate the achievement of the above and ensure that all resources due to the Commission are immediately made available to the Commission.
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