President Bola Tinubu on Thursday reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to regional integration, peace and economic cooperation as the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, inaugurated its new headquarters in Abuja.
Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the commissioning ceremony, described the new ECOWAS complex as a symbol of the bloc’s renewed commitment to unity, resilience and shared prosperity more than five decades after its establishment.
“Today marks not only the inauguration of an impressive landmark, but the renewal of a covenant—our covenant with the ideals of regional integration, solidarity and shared prosperity,” he said.
The President noted that ECOWAS has recorded achievements in promoting peace, democratic governance, economic cooperation and the free movement of people, goods and services across West Africa.
He, however, said the region still faces challenges, including terrorism, violent extremism, food insecurity, climate change, economic vulnerability and rising youth unemployment.
Tinubu urged member states to move beyond seeing ECOWAS as only a common market and instead build a regional production base to drive industrialisation and economic growth.
“The hour has come to transform our regional market into a regional production base. Our integration must increasingly be driven by what we produce rather than by what we consume,” he said.
He added that strengthening manufacturing, regional value chains, innovation, investment and intra-African trade should shape the next phase of regional integration.
