ECOWAS Parliament Speaker Decries West Africa’s Financial Challenges

The Speaker, Economic Community of West African States’ Parliament (ECOWAS Parliament), Memounatou Ibrahima,  has lamented the  weak financial base of the West African countries even as she attributed it to the impacts of global inflation, recession and insecurity on ECOWAS institutions’ funding.

The Speaker is disturbed that the financial difficulties in the subregion are hindering the execution and realisation of community projects and programmes even as she urged  ECOWAS member states to improve their funding to enable the regional body to meet its multifaceted challenges.

Ibrahima gave this charge while declaring open  the meeting of the Parliament’s Joint Committee on Administration, Budget, Finance, Public Account, Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research yesterday in Abidjan, Cote D’ Ivoire. She   noted that the limited financial resources were under the important financing needs of the community.

“As you know, the Community’s budget is supplied at 85 per cent by  its levy, which is a 0.5 per cent tax imposed on goods from countries that are not members.

“Unfortunately, the last report on the state of the community presented by the President of ECOWAS Commission revealed a weak mobilisation of its resources during these last years”, the Speaker said.

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Ibrahima further admonished  participants at the meeting to explore the  opportunity for collaboration and to improve on the strategies that member states must adopt in response to the numerous challenges confronting the region.

She said the meeting underscored the important role of ECOWAS Parliament in the community’s budgetary process, especially against the backdrop of current challenges and realities.

“The goal is to give lawmakers better insight into the challenges relating to the budget examination of the community in order to strengthen and consolidate the collaboration between ECOWAS Parliament and other community institutions.

“I am convinced that our discussions on the role of ECOWAS Parliament in the elaboration and follow-up of the budget of the community will generate relevant analyses and solid recommendations to accelerate our resolution towards a community of fully integrated people,” she said.

In his remarks, the Ivorian Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Niali Kaba, who represented the Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Integration, Wautabouna Ouatarra, said the adoption of the ECOWAS budget marked a decisive turning point in the Community’s annual life.

Also speaking, chairman of the joint committee and Deputy Speaker, Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, noted  that the parliament will apply prudence  in the use  of the funds of  regional institutions.

“The Parliament has a critical duty to ensure that public resources are utilised responsibly and for intended purposes by the executives. As representatives of the people of the region, we must champion the promotion and practice of transparency and accountability.

“In other words, oversight is an indispensable parliamentary tool that should be effectively deployed to secure the accountability of the executive to the parliament and the citizens in general”, he said.