President Muhammadu Buhari has called on member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to accelerate their efforts towards achieving monetary union by meeting the convergence criteria.
He also asked the member–states to strive to key into the Common External Tariff, which came into being this year.
The President spoke today at the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the ECOWAS in Abuja.
Buhari, who paid tribute to the founder fathers of the organisation, reminded members of the enormous challenges that still lye ahead in spite of the outstanding achievements.
“As I observed yesterday, we have a lot more work to do. We need to fast track the integration process, and the most effective way to do so is through accelerated and focused investments in key development sectors, including but not limited to energy, transportation, as well as road and rail networks. We should therefore push existing initiatives and adopt new ones. “Insufficient power supply has been identified as a major obstacle to investments in the region.”
President Buhari said that as members make individual efforts to boost power supply in their respective countries, they should accelerate the implementation of critical infrastructure, such as the West African gas pipeline project, while remaining committed to the promotion of alternative and renewable energy sources.
He wanted urgent steps to be taken to encourage intra – regional trade among member states in order to boost employment generation and trade relations.
On the consequences of climate change, Buhari wanted members to continue to coordinate actions with the other African countries, including through the African Union, in working with the rest of the world to reduce global warming without compromising their industrial development drive.
“Similarly, our region continues to be confronted with the daunting scourge of transnational organized crime including arms trafficking, drug trafficking, as well as piracy and criminality at sea. Equally worrying is the rising scourge of violent extremism and terrorism.
“All these constitute serious threats to peace and security in the region, and therefore require sustained focus and concerted actions.
“We must continue to enhance our system of governance and, working with our partners, accelerate the implementation of our joint initiatives and mechanisms that were created to address these daunting but not insurmountable risks. We must enhance cooperation with other regional and continental organisations such as the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC), and the African Union particularly in the fight against violent extremism, terrorism and piracy.
“As we celebrate today, let us not forget that beyond politics, the economic integration of our region must remain the fundamental objective of this Organisation. We need to accelerate our efforts towards achieving monetary union by meeting the convergence criteria while member–states should strive to key into the Common External Tariff, which came into being this year.” [myad]
