Abuja - Nigeria — The ECOWAS Council of Ministers has endorsed a proposal for a co-financing arrangement with the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) for the development of an emergency power supply plan for Guinea Bissau. ECOWAS is expected to contribute six million US dollars to the project while UEMOA will provide four million US dollars.
The contributions will complement a World Bank grant of 12 million US dollars to support the project for which an agreement was signed on 13th September 2010. This was one of the outcomes of the two-day 65th Ordinary Session of the region's Council of Ministers which ended late on Friday, 26th November 2010 in Abuja. The development of the project followed a recent directive by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government for the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions to undertake a mission to the country to assess the financial and technical requirements of providing power to the country's capital, Bissau.
In the aftermath of the mission, an agreement was signed between the Government of Guinea Bissau, ECOWAS, UEMOA and the Cotonou-based West Africa Power pool (WAPP) on 11th August 2010 in Bissau. The meeting of the Council, whose members have responsibility for ECOWAS affairs in Member States, also adopted the report of the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC). The AFC report includes recommended budgetary appropriations for the ECOWAS Commission and institutions of the Community for 2011, issues relating to the implementation status of the 0.5 per cent Community Levy as applied by Member States, the financing of election observation in Member States in 2011 as well as the recommendation for a special grant towards the newly created West African Institute of Regional Integration (WAI) in Cape Verde for which 300,000 dollars was approved as take-off grant. The Council called on the newly appointed members of the Board to undertake activities that would consolidate its institutional structure.
In order to contribute to the consolidation of peace and security and in accordance with the 2001 Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, the Council approved funds for the observation of election in Benin, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Liberia, Niger and Nigeria - the six Member States due to hold their general elections in 2011. While the Council acknowledged the contribution of such missions to the promotion of free, credible and transparent elections in Member States, they directed that the funds should also be used to build the capacity of the various stakeholders in the concerned Member States towards the conduct of the elections.
Furthermore, the Council recommended to the next summit of Heads of State and Government to lift the sanctions on Guinea following the successful conclusion of that country's election and as a gesture of support for the process. Similarly, they proposed to the Heads of State to do same for Niger when it elects a new president in 2011. Members of the Council also adopted certain draft regulations for improving collaboration on sanitary and phyto-sanitary issues among Member States.
The draft regulations were proposed by the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources which met at the ministerial level in February 2010 in Abuja to consider the harmonization of sanitary and phyto-sanitary regulations in the region.
In addition, they also adopted the draft regional sports policy and its accompanying strategic plan of action, which was contained in the report of the meeting of the Ministers of Youth and Sports in May 2010 in Dakar.
