27th FEBRUARY - 4th MARCH 2012 Vol. 05/2012

President Ouedraogo and H.E Gbeho

(l-r) President Ouedraogo, Vice President Mcintosh and Director, Airport Protocol Alh. Keita at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja.

NEW ECOWAS PRESIDENT ARRIVES ABUJAhe new President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Kadre Desire Ouedraogo arrived Abuja on

thTMonday, 27 February 2012 to assume duty, 10 days after his appointment by regional leaders for a non-renewable four-year term.

Ambassador Ouedraogo, who succeeds His Excellency James Victor Gbeho, was received by Vice President, Dr Toga Gayewea Mcintosh and some Commissioners.

With the impending assumption of the new President who thwas appointed during the 40 ordinary session of Heads of

thState and Government that ended on 17 February 2021, the Commission will have the full complement of its new management team.

This includes a new Vice-President and six Commissioners, who took over from the pioneer Commissioners earlier this month.

Ambassador Ouedraogo brings to his new position a wealth of experience and Impressive public service and diplomatic track record in various capacities.

Until this appointment, he had served as Ambassador and Plenipotentiary of Burkina Faso to the Kingdom of Belgium, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom Northern Ireland as well as the country's Permanent Representative to the European Union, the Organization for the prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the World Customs Organization.

Between 1996 and 2000, he was his country's Prime Minister after serving as Minister of Economic and Finance between 1996 and 1997. Before then, he served as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of West Africa States (BCEAO) in

Dakar, Senegal between 1993 and 1996. Ambassador Ouedraogo is not a stranger to ECOWAS,

having served the organization as Deputy Executive Secretary in Lagos between 1985 and 1993 before the organization relocated to Abuja.

A recipient of the award of Grand Officer in the National Order of Burkina Faso in 1996, he was elected Member of Parliament in 1997.

.... Assumes Officehe new President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency Kadre Desire Ouedraogo assumed office on

stTThursday, 1 March 2012 with a pledge to contribute toward the attainment of the dreams of the Organization's founding fathers by making West Africa a leading power for the realization of Africa's unity.

“Let us work together against poverty, injustice and bad governance ... ECOWAS must be a land of

peace, unity and progress”

“Let us work together against poverty, injustice and bad governance,” he affirmed, during a brief ceremony to introduce him to staff at the Commission's Abuja Headquarters. “Let us work hard to build a community which all of us shall be proud of.”

President Ouedraogo urged West African youths in particular, to share his “enthusiasm and hope for the future of ECOWAS and indeed, the brilliant future of Africa,” stressing that “ECOWAS must be a land of peace, unity and progress.”

He paid glowing tributes to the founding fathers of ECOWAS and those who sometimes sacrificed their lives to build the Community over the past 37 years of its existence.

Specifically, President Ouedraogo expressed his profound gratitude to the government and people of Nigeria, and President Goodluck Jonathan, the immediate past Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, for the warm welcome and support extended to him.

He also commended the outgoing President of the Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho and his predecessor, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, for the “wonderful job they have done for ECOWAS and its institutions.”

President Ouedraogo, a former Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, who served as Deputy Executive Secretary of ECOWAS

between 1985 and 1993, equally commended ECOWAS leaders for the confidence reposed in him and pledged to do his best.

He called for the total cooperation of the Commission's new team including Vice-President Dr. Toga Mcintosh, the Commissioners who assumed duties recently and the entire staff, to enable the organization deliver on its mandate and objectives.

In his remarks, President Gbeho said the assumption of duty by the new management team marked a new stage in the life of ECOWAS.

He welcomed his successor and urged the Commission's staff to extend to the new management team the same level of cooperation or even more than he and his team enjoyed.

ECOWAS has since its founding in 1975 through the Treaty of Lagos, undergone some major restructuring including its transformation in 2007 from an Executive Secretariat to a Commission with a President, Vice President and seven pioneer Commissioners.

ECOWAS-WAMI TASK FORCE AGREESMECHANISM TO BOOST REGIONAL TRADE

task force comprising officials of the ECOWAS Commission and their counterparts from the West African AMonetary Institute (WAMI) working to eliminate

impediments to intra-Community trade has reached an agreement on a template for four studies intended to improve the implementation of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), one of the pillars of the region's integration agenda.

The Terms of Reference agreed at the end of a three-day meeting of the officials relate to studies about the capacity of Member States to implement their trade integration obligations, and the benefits and costs of implementing the ETLS. The implementation of the scheme has been hampered mainly by non-tariff barriers.

The last of the studies will enable the two organizations prepare a position paper on trade in services in the region for Ministers of Trade of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), which comprises Ministers from the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,

Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, ahead of the next Doha round of n e g o t i a t i o n s . T h e s e f i v e c o u n t r i e s a r e working to create a second regional common currency by 2015 on the road to a single regional currency in 2020.

Bes ides the four studies, the seventh meeting of t h e t a s k - f o r c e which ended in Accra, Ghana on T h u r s d a y, 3 r d

February 2012 also agreed on the modalities for the studies.

Also agreed is the structure of the studies which should be carried out in three phases and completed before the next meeting of the ministers of trade in June, 2012. In this regard, the meeting agreed that all documentation related to the studies

ndshould be submitted to WAMI by 2 March 2012, while the ECOWAS Commission should designate focal points in its directorates of trade, customs and legal to coordinate the required documentation to this effect.

In order to provide an annual platform for highlighting the status of implementation of trade related regional instruments whose implementation is critical to regional integration, the task- force proposed that areas of the practical constraints to the implementation of the Protocol on Free Movement by Member States should be integrated into the ECOWAS Commission President's annual statutory report to the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and the Authority of Heads of State and Government.

Such a report, the meeting agreed, should provide a framework for peer reviewing the performance of Member States in discharging their obligations under trade related Protocols and Decisions and help stimulate increased implementation.

In his opening remarks, the WAMI Acting Director General, Mr. John Tei-Kitcher, noted that the meeting was in compliance with the directive of the ministers of trade during their fourth forum held in Freetown, Sierra Leone in May 2011, urging the two organizations to collaborate in carrying out the four studies. He expressed optimism that the outcome of the studies would contribute to increasing the level of intra-Community trade.

The Director of Multilateral Surveillance of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Lassané Kaboré, who led the ECOWAS team, underscored the value of improved trade to regional integration, adding that the bi-annual meeting enables officials of the two institutions to make proposals for improving intra Community trade.

The hosting of the task-force meeting is alternated between the ECOWAS Commission and WAMI

Mr. Kaboré

“commended the outgoing President of the Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho and his predecessor, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas,

for the wonderful job they have done for ECOWAS and its institutions”

H.E. Ouedraogo in a group photograph with ECOWAS Commissioners and Judges

SECOND ECOWAS-CHINA ECONOMIC FORUM TO HOLD IN GHANA

hana will host the second edition of the ECOWAS-China forum

th stGbetween 20 and 21 March 2012 in Accra, Ghana, during which private sector operators will seek to develop partnerships in six key areas mainly infrastructure development specifically roads, railways, housing, construction and transportation.

Other areas for collaboration are in the sectors of power, mining, agriculture, health care, pharmaceuticals and in format ion and communicat ion technology (ICT).

China hosted the inaugural edition of rd ththe forum between 23 and 26

September 2008. The economic and trade forum seeks

to maximize the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from China into ECOWAS countries; attract long-term concessionary funds for developing public infrastructure; promote ECOWAS-China trade and, by extension, intra-ECOWAS trade; and extend the global reach of financial institutions in West Africa.

The ECOWAS Commission's high-level delegation to the Accra Forum will

include the President and Vice-President, as well as representatives of West African governments and institutions.

Representatives of six prominent Chinese institutions, including the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the China-Africa Development Fund will attend this second forum.

In June 2011, a high-level ministerial

delegation led by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho, visited China during which they presented critical integration projects mainly in Ghana and Sierra Leone to the Government of the People's Republic of China, the EXIMBANK of China, China Development Bank and the China African Fund for funding.

In addition, the delegation discussed with ECOWAS ambassadors in China as well as the China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd., the China Gezhouba group, and also visited Hubei provincial government, and the Wuhan municipal and Silchuan provincial governments to showcase investment opportunities in the ECOWAS region and regional integration projects.

The achievements of that visit included the signing of several memoranda of understanding and contracts between key Chinese institutions and the Governments of Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

The ECOWAS-China collaboration is the first of its kind in Africa and the ECOWAS Commission is determined to realize the full potentials of this unique partnership.

The ECOWAS Commission has received a technical report on a recent study which it commissioned as part of e f f o r t s t o improve i t s i n te rna l compu te r

network/Interconnectivity with other Community Institutions.The report was considered by a joint meeting in Abuja of

officials of the regional Telecommunications Maintenance Centre, Lome (CMTL) and the ECOWAS Community Computer Centre (CCC).

The study was awarded to the CMTL in 2011 with the

Mr. Agyeman-Dauh

ECOWAS COMMISSION MOVES TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY COMPUTER INTERCONNECTIVITY

“The project is expected to facilitate communication between the

Commission's institutions, which will ultimately be extended to Member States in line with Vision 2020 for

moving from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of People”

mandate to advice the Commission on the best practices towards facilitating better communication and exchange of data between the Commission and other ECOWAS Institutions and Agencies.

Its terms of reference included linking different sites in a private network and integrating all ECOWAS Institutions in Nigeria to the Commission under the first phase.

The second phase will involve the integration of other Institutions and Member States, provision of efficient and reliable Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth for each site, video-conferencing capability and advising the Commission on the quality and quantity of personnel to manage the system.

The project is expected to facilitate communication between the Commission's institutions, which will ultimately be extended to Member States in line with Vision 2020 for moving from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of People.

The CMTL team at meeting held 20th-24th February 2012

OF THE QUOTE WEEKQUOTE WEEK Ghana

Sunny UgohAg. Director Communication

Paul EjimeEditor

Doscof AhoInternal Communication Officer

Uwem ThompsonInformation Officer

Amamata SulaimanInformation Graphics Officer

Ngozi NwaolisaInformation/Media Assistant

David Oduyingbo, Sani MalgwiPhotographers

was led by Elhadi Maman Laminou, while the Acting Director of CCC, Mr. Osei Tutu-Agyman-Duah, led the CCC team.

A private firm, CISCO Nigeria was also invited to the meeting to help ensure that the report meets international

A group photograph of participants at the meeting

ECOWAS COMMISSION STAFF MOURN LATE COLLEAGUE, SEBASTIEN CHABI

taff of the ECOWAS Commission on thFriday, 24 February, 2012, held a Scandle-lighting ceremony in honour

of their departed colleague, Colonel Sebastien Koula Chabi, who passed on in

thAbuja on Wednesday, 15 February 2012, aged 55.

In attendance were the President of the Commission, His Excellency, James Victor Gbeho, the Vice-President, Dr. Toga

Mcintosh and the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Lapodini Atouga.

In his tribute, President Gbeho regretted the death of Colonel Chabi, a Principal Programme Officer, with the ECOWAS Standby Force( ESF) in the Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department, and described him as “a dedicated and friendly person.”

He enjoined the staff to be consoled in

Late Col. Chabithe late Colonel's achievements and contributions to the Community, and use “our time on earth to advance the cause of h u m a n i t y ” b y collectively working for the growth of the Commission.

Prayers were said for the peaceful repose of the soul of the Colonel and for God's protection of his family.

Colonel Chabi,

from Benin Republic, joined the ECOWAS Commission, Abuja in 2008. He is survived by his widow, Mary and four children.

(r-l) H.E. Gbeho, Dr. Machintosh and Commissioner Atouga

“ if your foot slips, you can recover your balance, if your tongue slips, you cannot recover your words ”

standards.In his closing remarks, Mr. Agyeman-Dauh, who chaired

the meeting, said the study will facilitate effective implementation of project.