Omar Touray President, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission says 2023 community budget will focus on action plans against terrorism, political stability among its four strategic objectives plan.

Touray made this known on Monday during the opening of 32nd Meeting of the ECOWAS Administrative and Finance Committee (AFC) in Abuja.

Touray said that the 2023 community budget of “Consolidation and Reforms” was prepared to ensure the consolidation of the gains made in the institutional reform process and to support the region’s recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia War.

He said that the budget was also designed to set the agenda for the next four years, aimed at putting the region back on track for regional integration.

“It is in view of the foregoing issues that we quickly identified four strategic objectives that will be our focus for the next four years, which we called the 4 by 4 (4x).

“These four objectives are Enhanced Peace and Security, Deeper Regional Integration, Good Governance, Inclusive and Sustained Development.

“In addition to these four strategic objectives, we have identified two enablers namely capable institutions and equitable partnerships, which would facilitate the realisation of our objectives.

“Let me quickly add that our four strategic objectives are already aligned with the Community Strategic Framework (CSF), which has been developed for the realisation of the ECOWAS Vision 2050.

“We intend to focus on strengthening the ECOWAS peace and security architecture and achieving results related to:

“The Implementation Plan against Terrorism, on this we would like to invite you to support us with the full realisation of the one billion dollars Pool Fund which our members pledged.

“The full operationalisation of the ECOWAS Maritime Security Architecture, the full operationalisation of the National Early Warning and Response Centres, building the mediation and rapid response capacity of ECOWAS,” Touray said.

Touray said that second strategic objective “is to deepen Regional Integration through the promotion and enhancement of intra-community trade, free movement of people, and the monetary Union.

“Specific deliverables for the next four years under this pillar will include Reducing Tariff and non-tariff barriers (through the effective deployment of the ETLS Task Force).

“Full operationalisation of the regional payment system, introduction of ECO-Visa, implementation to concrete border projects under the ECOWAS Cross Border Programme, among others,” he added.

On the third strategic objective of Good Governance, Touray said the community budget would focus on building stronger regimes against anti-constitutional change of government and support Member States to deepen democracy.

“Here, our specific deliverables in the next four years will include; completing the transition to democracy in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, enhancing our election support to member states including observation mission.

“Strengthening ECOWAS Court and the ECOWAS Parliament to play their democratic roles; instituting a broader mandate for intervention as a strong measure against anti-constitutional change of government.”

The ECOWAS Commission’s President said that the fourth strategic objective “is Inclusive and Sustainable Development which covers gender and social programmes, infrastructure and environment.

“In the next four years, we intend to invest in food security, including further increase in the stock of our Regional Food Security Reserve.

“And the implementation of the ECOWAS rice Offensive Action Plan (2022 to 2025) to reduce our dependence on imports, as exposed by the Ukraine-Russia war,” Touray said.

Declaring the meeting open, the Chair of the AFC, Ms Silva Cristina said that the meeting was aimed at assessing the community budget to ensure that community resources were efficiently used for the betterment of ECOWAS citizens.

“The main objective of this year-end meeting is to consider and validate our budget; it is also to ensure the technical and financial monitoring of the year under review – 2022 budget.

“And our work will be to ensure that the strategic objectives of the community are being met. We are invited to look at the medium-term expenditure frame-work, 2023 to 2025.

“We are of the view that this exercise will only be easy if we look at it against the background of economic framework which has been strongly marred by the pandemic and also persistent non-enforcement of the protocol of the community levy on all products.

“Our community depends on the outcomes of this deliberation. That is why the honourable members of AFC have to make constructive and concrete contributions.

“Which will enable us to make progress and ensure that the community resources are efficiently used,” Cristina said.