ECOWAS Leaders Endorse Nigeria for UN Security
Council Seat
ECOWAS
leaders have endorsed the candidature of Nigeria for
a seat on the UN Security Council.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Mohammed
Ibn Chambas, stated this in Abuja at the end of the
Commission’s 36th Ordinary Session of Authority of
Heads of States and Governments.
In his words, ``the leaders, in throwing their
support behind Nigeria, reiterated the acceptance of
the principle of rotation of the non-permanent seat
of the UN Security Council’’.
New Tariff
Meanwhile, Chambas said that the leaders also
approved a new Common External Tariff regime of 35
per cent to be levied on certain categories of goods
imported into the region.
The revised regime will replace the four-band regime
approved during the 2006 summit of Heads of State
and Government and is part of the platforms for
creating a common market in West Africa.
The leaders also endorsed the on-going efforts to
harmonise the Value Added Tax regime in the region,"
he said.
The summit approved the initiatives
recommended by the recent meeting of the Ministers
of Transport, Infrastructure, Finance and Aviation
in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.
The leaders called for donor support for the
identified initiatives, including programmes to
resolve the energy crisis in the region.
Other initiatives were the development of renewal
energy and the interconnection of the electricity
network being pursued by the Cotonou-based West
African Power Pool.
Chambas said that the summit directed the ECOWAS
Commission to present modalities for the
establishment of the Regional Infrastructure Fund.
In doing this, the
Commission was to work closely with the ECOWAS Bank
for Investment, Development, and the Project
Development Unit.
To tackle illicit drug trafficking, organised crime
and drug abuse, the leaders approved the
implementation of the regional plan of action
against drugs, which they endorsed during their
December 2008 summit.
In order to facilitate its implementation, they
urged development partners to provide financial
support for the realisation of the objectives of the
plan.
Single Currency
Chambas said the Heads of States and Governments of
the ECOWAS Second Monetary Zone also met and
endorsed the revised map for the realisation of a
single currency recommended by the Convergence
Council.
The council comprises Ministers of Finance and the
Governors of Central Banks of the ECOWAS member
states.
The revised map envisages that between 2009 and the
first quarter of 2013, regulatory and supervisory
framework for banking and other financial
institutions will be harmonised.
He said that the payment system infrastructure for
cross-border transactions in all the member states
would be completed.
Dr Chambas was quoted as saying ``By 2014, it is
expected that the legal instruments for the creation
of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) comprising
Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria,
would have been ratified. This will be in the same
year with the creation of the bank for the WAMZ zone
as well as the establishment of the WAMZ Secretariat
and the envisaged West African Financial Supervisory
Agency’’.
Monetary union for the countries of the zone is
scheduled to be realised on or before 2015 before
the introduction of Eco, their common currency in
January 2015.
He said that this was to be followed by the
withdrawal of the national currencies of the five
constituent member-states.
Chambas further stated that the Heads of States and
Governments also approved the new policies for
labour and trafficking in persons.
The Authority directed the Commission to establish a
high level panel of eminent West African citizens to
make proposals for the reinforcement of integration
in the region in the economic and political spheres.
NAN/Qasim/Austeen