ECOWAS Parliament Female Speaker Vows To Build Capacity For Women

The newly elected Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Maimounatou Ibrahima, has vowed to pursue policies that will promote women and girls in the region.

Ibrahima, who is the first woman to be elected Speaker of the Regional Legislature during last month’s Second Extraordinary Session of the Parliament in Kano State, Nigeria, will lead the 6th Legislature, which was inaugurated recently by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, Chairman of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government.

She officially assumed office on Thursday in the Nigerian capital Abuja by embarking on a facility and office tour of the Parliament after meeting with the principal officers, who briefed her about developments in the Parliament.

After a courtesy visit to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Alieu Touray, at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, the Togolese Speaker told reporters that it has become incumbent on the Parliament and all other ECOWAS institutions to direct policies that promote and enhance the status of women in the region.

She said, “This is the first time a woman will be the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, that is going to be an inspiration for other women to aspire to achieve higher goals. We have ECOFEPA which is an association of ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians to help women. We are also going strengthen the area of capacity building for women so that they can also move higher and higher.”

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She commended her country’s President, Faure Gnassingbe, who she said, facilitated her appointment as the Speaker and admonished other world leaders to direct policies towards making more women occupy sensitive positions in order to contribute their quota to economic and political development.

The speaker also pledged to collaborate with other ECOWAS institutions to address the challenges of insecurity, political and economic crises ravaging the region as well as work arduously to promote regional integration, economic development among others.