Tinubu Receives ECOWAS Heads of State as 67th Summit Begins in Abuja

The 67th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was hosted by President Bola Tinubu on Sunday in the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja.
President Tinubu’s second tenure as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority comes to an end with the high-level summit, which takes place six months after the last session in December 2024. He was re-elected to the position on July 7, 2024, after first taking office on July 9, 2023.
The 67th Ordinary Session was called at a crucial moment as the regional bloc still struggles with the announcements made earlier this year by the military juntas of Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Niger Republic that they were leaving ECOWAS.

The summit is anticipated to cover topics such as the bloc’s internal problems, rising insecurity, democratic regression, and the necessity of greater economic integration among participating nations.
Speaking earlier on Saturday at the first-ever West Africa Economic Summit (WAES), which was held at the recently opened Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, the president of Nigeria demanded a change in the way the area handles its mineral resources.

“The warm pit to the port era must end,” Tinubu declared. We need to transform our mining wealth into industry, jobs, technology, and domestic economic value.

Noting that the region’s potential for sustainable growth is only constrained by the current raw material export status quo, he emphasized the necessity of value addition and localized manufacturing.

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The low intraregional commerce among ECOWAS member states, which is currently less than 10%, is another issue that the president raised.

“Change is not always ensured by opportunity. He cautioned, “We shouldn’t wait for West Africa to get its act together; the world economy won’t.”

To realize its full economic potential, Tinubu stated that the region needs give priority to infrastructure investment, regional supply networks, and policy cooperation.

Tinubu emphasized that West Africa’s youth were its greatest asset, but in the absence of significant investments in entrepreneurship, education, and technology, the population might become a liability.

Regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks are essential to our economy. He warned that if we don’t create them jointly, they will fall apart.

President Tinubu called on ECOWAS leaders to deliver “concrete deals” that will transform regional blueprints into tangible change, saying that they should go beyond statements.

“Our collaborative projects, ranging from the Lagos to Abidjan highway and the West African Power Pool to creative industry initiatives, demonstrate what is achievable when we collaborate,” he said.

“However, we need to go from assertions to tangible agreements — from policy frameworks to real-world execution.”