Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has been elected as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government.
Naija News reports that he succeeds President Bola Tinubu, who chaired the regional economic bloc for the past two years.
This was made known in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Naija News earlier reported that Tinubu, on Sunday, received West African leaders at the 67th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), held at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.
The high-level summit, which comes six months after the last session in December 2024, marked the conclusion of President Tinubu’s second term as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, a role he was re-elected to on July 7, 2024, after initially assuming office on July 9, 2023.
The 67th Ordinary Session was convened at a critical time, as the regional bloc continues to reel from the withdrawals of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic, whose military juntas announced their exit from ECOWAS earlier in the year.
Discussions at the summit are expected to address the bloc’s internal challenges, growing insecurity, democratic backsliding, and the need for deeper economic integration among member states.
Speaking earlier on Saturday at the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES), hosted at the newly inaugurated Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, the Nigerian president called for a paradigm shift in how the region manages its mineral wealth.
Tinubu said, “The era of warm pit to the port must end. We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value, jobs, technology, and manufacturing.”
He emphasised the need for value addition and regional manufacturing, noting that the status quo of raw mineral exports only limits the region’s potential for sustainable growth.
The President also expressed concern over low intraregional trade, which currently sits at less than 10 per cent among ECOWAS member states.
The post BREAKING: New ECOWAS Chairman Elected As Tinubu’s Tenure Ends appeared first on Naija News.