ECOWAS Commission Gets New President

17 February 2012
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Abuja — ECOWAS leaders have appointed Ambassador Kadre Desire Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso, as the new President of the ECOWAS Commission for a non-renewable four- year term, to replace His Excellency James Victor Gbeho of Ghana who leaves the post after two years.

This was one of the key decisions of the two-day 40th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government which ended in Abuja on Friday 17 February 2012. With his appointment, the ECOWAS institution, which transformed from an Executive Secretariat to a Commission in 2007, now has the full complement of a new management team. This includes a new Vice-president and six Commissioners, who took over from the pioneer Commissioners earlier this month. The four-year tenure of the seventh pioneer Commissioner for Human Development and Gender expires in June 2012. The Authority directed the Chairman of the Council of ministers to convene as soon as possible a meeting of the Council to consider the allocation of outstanding statutory positions within the ECOWAS institutions and agencies.

Among the positions are those of four Judges in the Community Court of Justice as well as the West African Health Organisation and the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA). Ambassador Ouedraogo brings to his new position a wealth of experience and an impressive public service and diplomatic track record, including as Prime Minister and Minister for Economy and Finance in his country. Until his new appointment was Ambassador and Plenipotentiary of Burkina Faso to the Kingdom of Belgium, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland as well as the country's Permanent Representative to the European Union, the Organization for the prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the World Customs Organization. He was his country's Prime Minister between 1996 and 2000, Minister of Economic and Finance 1996-1997 and between 1993 and 1996, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of West Africa States (BCEAO) in Dakar, Senegal.

Ambassador Ouedraogo is not a stranger to ECOWAS, having served the organization as Deputy Executive Secretary in Lagos between 1985 and 1993 before the organization relocated to Abuja. A recipient of the award of Grand Officer in the National Order of Burkina Faso in 1996, he was elected Member of Parliament in 1997. Ouedraogo is fluent in French and English, and reads Spanish.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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