According to reporting from The Guardian, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, has officially projected a regional economic growth rate of 5.0% for the current 2026 fiscal year. This optimistic forecast follows a resilient 4.6% growth recorded in the previous year, despite global economic headwinds and high inflation. Speaking at a news conference in Abuja regarding the exit of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, the commission emphasized that the West African bloc continues to outperform other regions on the African continent.
The projections are built on the back of recovering industrial output and a steady decline in inflation across member states. Officials noted that while the global economy has slowed down, Africa’s resilience remains a key driver for the regional uptick. The commission is now focusing on harmonizing trade policies to ensure this 5% target is met through increased intra-regional commerce and infrastructure stability.
This development has been corroborated by Vanguard and The Nation. Vanguard noted that the “resilience of the West African economy is a testament to recent fiscal reforms,” while The Nation reported that “member states are being urged to maintain fiscal discipline to meet the 5% growth threshold.”
Echotitbits take:
This 5% growth projection is a bold signal of stability for a region recently rocked by the exit of three key members. Investors should watch for new trade treaties within ECOWAS to compensate for the “exit shock,” as the commission seeks to prove that the bloc remains economically viable without the Sahelian trio.
Source: Daily Trust – https://dailytrust.com/ecowas-targets-5-growth-for-west-african-countries-in-2026/ , January 31, 2026
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed optimism that improvement in relations between Nigeria and South Africa will speed up the process of development on the African continent.
Speaking in concurrence with the Chairman of the African National Congress (ANC) and South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, who came to the State House, Abuja on Friday as Special Envoy of his country, President Buhari cited his last trip to South Africa during which he and President Cyril Ramaphosa worked together in resolving the migrants’ crisis between two brotherly nations, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu disclosed in a statement.
“There was this ‘small problem’ between our countries. I went there and we resolved it,” the Nigerian President told the envoy.
He directed the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva to work with his South African counterpart on the requests he brought and report back to him for his action.
The South African minister, who presented a letter from President Ramaphosa, said the relationship between Nigeria and his country was key to the development aspirations of the continent.
While emphasising that the two nations need to work as partners, Mantashe said “this relationship will determine the future of Africa.”
• Nigeria to host maiden Conference of African Speakers and Heads of Parliament
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila on Monday convened a meeting of some African Speakers of Parliaments where it was agreed that there is an urgent need to push for debt cancellation for the continent from their multilateral and bilateral partners.
At the virtual meeting, the Speaker’s proposed initiative to establish the Conference of African Speakers and Heads of Parliament (CoSAP), a body that will facilitate increased collaboration between Speakers, Heads of Parliament and National Assemblies across Africa got a boost.
The African Speakers will also seek to advance the African development agenda within and outside the continent in conjunction with both the executive arms of government as well as African regional institutions.
African Heads of Parliament who participated in the meeting include Hon. Tagesse Chafo, Speaker, House of Peoples Representatives, Ethiopia; Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, PhD, Speaker of Parliament, Ghana; Hon. Justin Bedan Muturi, Speaker, National Assembly, Republic of Kenya; Rt. Hon. Donatille Mukabalisa, Speaker, Chamber of Deputies, Rwanda; and President Moustapha Niasse, AFP, President, National Assembly, Senegal.
In his opening remarks, Gbajabiamila said there was an urgent need to join local and global efforts to push for the cancellation of external debt owed by various countries on the continent.
He submitted that development across the continent has become stunted due to the heavy burden of the debts, noting that the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has compounded the issue for the continent, considering the socio-political and economic consequences of the disease.
“We all agree that Africa’s debt burden has become an existential threat to our societies, our economies and the future; we leave to posterity, and we need to do something about this and treat it as a continent-wide priority.
“It is safe to say that the burden of debt servicing, vis-à-vis spending on education and health care for example, is a threat to our continent’s stability and development, especially in the era of Covid-19.
“When we find ourselves having to make policy choices between paying debts or saving lives, we know something is not morally right. And as democratically elected representatives of our people, we cannot be silent. We must speak up and we must act. And the time to act is now.
“Furthermore, is the need for us to reflect on, the processes that led to Africa’s heavy indebtedness in the first place, the role parliamentarians can play to address this going forward and what assurances we as parliamentarians can give our borrowers that if our debt is cancelled, the freed-up resources will be invested in social and economic development of our citizens.
“If we want debt cancellation, we must be able to build the confidence of the borrowers that the cancellation will indeed save lives and livelihoods across the continent, and we, as Speakers and Heads of our parliaments, will ensure that is indeed the case”.
On the need for the establishment of the Pan-African Speaker’s Conference, Gbajabiamila noted that collective efforts at tackling challenges facing the continent have become expedient.
He said: “The motive behind this initiative is that each year we identify a theme, issue, or challenge that is pan-African in scope and we meet to deliberate on how we can work together across parliaments in Africa to tackle these continental issues and challenges.
“As heads of our respective parliamentary entities, it will also be a good platform to share experiences and expertise in different aspects of our legislative duties pertinent to the growth, development and sustenance of our economies and our societies; and on ways to enhance the capacity and impact of our parliaments on our democracies and the lives of the peoples we all represent.
“We have spent decades learning from the rest of the world, now we must begin to learn from one another”.
Throwing his weight behind the two initiatives, Hon. Tagesse Chafo, Speaker, House of Peoples Representatives, Ethiopia, noted that though almost every government on the continent has been trying to seek debt forgiveness, this should not, however, stop the parliaments from contributing to the efforts through a platform such as this.
“As representatives of our people, we are to come together, advise and campaign about the issue, we don’t have to keep quiet because debt cancellation would be good for the resuscitation of our economies that have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
In the same vein, Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, Speaker of Parliament, Ghana noted that the debt burden is essentially a common challenge on the continent, as most African countries have to depend on foreign loans to execute their national budgets.
He, however, noted that the Speaker’s group, in its efforts to push for debt cancellation must be able to convince the creditors about accountability if they hope to succeed.
He said: “Donor agencies are interested in accountability because they are confounded about the issue of corruption, and we must be able to give the assurance and that is why the Speakers Conference is critical. And if nothing is done, there may be no economy to service the loans”
Hon. Justin Bedan Muturi, Speaker, National Assembly, Republic of Kenya also emphasised the need for the initiative, adding that, the coronavirus pandemic has undermined most African economies because conditions attached to most of the loans have been eroded by the consequences of the novel pandemic.
On her part, Rt. Hon. Donatille Mukabalisa, Speaker, Chamber of Deputies, Rwanda, while noting that African countries depend on and are heavily burdened by loans even before the pandemic, however, added that the group must be clear about the kind of debt it is seeking to address and from which partners.
While President Moustapha Niasse, AFP, President, National Assembly, Senegal also regretted that the pandemic has affected all economies on the continent negatively, he, however, suggested that opinions of members of the forum must be sought on how to solve the issues between suspension or cancellation of debt
“We must be convinced that we have a job to do at the level of parliament,” he added.
It was also agreed that a Communique would be released in the first week of September 2020, while the campaign for implementations of the plan of action would begin in the second week of September 2020 as well.
According to the forum, the third week of September would be devoted to the planning for the 2021 conference by the Secretariat.
While it was decided that Nigeria would host the maiden edition of CoSAP, chaired by Nigerian Speaker the Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, the new body is expected to meet again in the first week of September to approve the plans and swing into action.
Nigeria Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila. Monday, August 17, 2020. Photo- Office of the Speaker.
Tobiloba Kolawole
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