Abuja — Thirty operatives of Nigeria's Immigration Service are to benefit from a week- long training programme which opens on Monday, 22nd August 2011 in Abuja, designed to improve their understanding of the ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services as well as Right of Residence and Establishment.

The train-the-trainer programme, the third in a series organized by the ECOWAS Commission, will equip the operatives with a better understanding of the Protocol and the ECOWAS common approach to migration as part of efforts to improve compliance.

The ECOWAS flagship Protocol was signed on 29th May 1979 by regional leaders as an instrument for promoting unfettered movement of Community citizens within the region as part of the process of creating a single regional economic space where citizens can avail themselves of the opportunities that abound in Member States and contribute to the region's development. It also seeks to enhance intra-Community trade, which presently hovers between 11 and 13 per cent, and contribute to the stimulation of the regional economy

The training for the immigration operatives is one of the activities being pursued by the ECOWAS Commission to address the challenges identified with the implementation of the Free Movement Protocol, including harassment, corruption, indiscriminate road blocks and erection of non tariff barriers. Already the Commission, in collaboration with other regional institutions and partners, has started the process of creating centres along the borders to facilitate citizen access to information on the Protocol and recourse for citizens who suffer from existing impediments.

The information centres will also complement the role of the national media networks on free movement already set up by the Commission and the national monitoring committees as part of a holistic mechanism to address the challenges.