ECOWAS, France Sign €20 Million Agreements To Enhance Agriculture
Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
ECOWAS Commission and the French Development Agency (AFD), have signed two new financing agreements totaling €20 million in support of the regional agricultural policy (ECOWAP)
The agreements were signed in the presence of the Ambassador of France to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Emmanuelle Blatmann, where the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray signed for ECOWAS and French Minister of State for Development, Francophonie, and International Partnerships, Ms. Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, signed for the French Development Agency.
The financing are dedicated to the implementation of two seperate projects, while €11 million is meant to support the “Local Milk Regional Strategy” aimed at developing local dairy value chains in West Africa; €9 million support is to the West African Food Security Storage Strategy, which will be increased to €17 million as the total amount of French support for this critical project. The additional funding is crucial in the context of a worsening food crisis in the region.
In his speech, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Touray, said that the various technical and financial support provided by France to ECOWAS through the AFD Group has enabled the region support various areas, including the implementation of the ECOWAS agricultural policy (ECOWAP), the creation and implementation of the regional energy market, the health sector, and the development of the activities of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).
The ECOWAS President commended the support that the AFD Group has given the Commission in the past 10 years which amounts to a total of €135 million including €75 million in delegated European funds to implement regional projects and programs dealing with critical issues of vulnerabilities and crises affecting the region (food security, livestock and transhumance conflicts, Sanitary and phytosanitary, climate smart Agriculture and sustainable agriculture).
The projects implementation will be performed by the ECOWAS Commission, through its Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF) and the project activities will be carried out in the ECOWAS region extended to Chad, Mauritania and Cameroon.
The French Minister of State, Ms. Blatmann, explained that this support from the French Development Agency, AFD, is part of collective efforts to strengthen the regional response to food security and nutrition challenges, as well as fostering economic and social development in the region.
She commended the extent of the ongoing partnership between AFD and ECOWAS, adding that this support fully contributes to ECOWAP’s priority on food sovereignty in line with one of the priority objectives that France intends to support in Africa, as French President Emmanuel Macron stated during the French Presidential Development Council on May 5 2023.
