ECOWAS and Germany Reach Agreement on Development Cooperation

                                                                               Abuja 11^th October 2019

The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has entered into far-reaching agreements with the Government of Germany on development cooperation.

The Agreements reached in the course of a two-day consultation meeting, which ended at the ECOWAS Commission Headquarters on 10^th October 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria, covered sectors that included cooperation on trade liberalisation in an enhanced global economic environment, strategies to cope with irregular migration as well as technical cooperation on organisational development.

Other areas are Technical cooperation in Political Affairs, Peace and Security and financial cooperation for the establishment of the Fund for Regional Stabilization and Development (FRSD) in fragile regions within ECOWAS Member States.

The Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission Madam Finda Koroma signed the agreement on behalf of ECOWAS, while the Director Africa, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Mr. Christoph Rauh signed for the German Government.

Having expressed their intention to continue the cooperation in three priority areas of regional economic and political integration, health and energy, both sides also agreed that further steps needed to be taken to facilitate implementation of programmes by member states with a view to achieving an effective economic integration.

Germany in cooperation with the European Union pledged its continued support to ECOWAS efforts towards a customs union, through the implementation of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), the Common External Tariff (CET), and the introduction of the ECOWAS Customs Code as well as harmonised fiscal policies in the region.

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