Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has been chosen Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government.
He is expected to follow President Bola Tinubu, who has chaired the regional economic group for the previous two years.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed this in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
According to Naija News, Tinubu met with West African leaders on Sunday at the 67th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which was held in the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja. POCO phones
The high-level summit, held six months after the last session in December 2024, marked the end of President Tinubu’s second term as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, which he was re-elected to on July 7, 2024, after taking office on July 9, 2023.
The 67th Ordinary Session was convened at a critical time for the regional bloc, which is still reeling from the withdrawals of Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Niger Republic, whose military juntas declared their leave from ECOWAS earlier this year.
The summit’s discussions are anticipated to focus on the bloc’s internal difficulties, increasing insecurity, democratic backsliding, and the need for tighter economic integration among member states.
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Speaking earlier on Saturday at the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES), held at the newly inaugurated Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Nigeria’s president called for a paradigm shift in how the region administers its natural resources.
Tinubu stated, “The warm pit-to-port period must come to an end. “We must convert our mineral wealth into domestic economic value, jobs, technology, and manufacturing.”
He stressed the importance of value addition and regional manufacturing, emphasizing that the current condition of raw resource exports only limits the region’s potential for long-term growth.
The President also raised concern over poor intraregional trade, which is currently less than 10% among ECOWAS member states.
