Abuja, 29^th January 2019. The Jury sitting for the award of prizes of Excellence by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has concluded its work of recommending befitting awardees.

Bringing the 4-Day meeting of the jury to a close on the 25^th of January 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria, the Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission Madam Finda Koroma restated that the idea of awards of excellence to distinguished citizens of West Africa is meant to recognise the meritorious services and talent of certain icons who have been strongly involved in the integration of region.

Noting that the establishment of the award of excellence is a welcomed development, she acknowledged that the task of selecting the awardees is daunting arising from the depth of quality of deserving winners in the region.

“We know that it will be difficult to choose (decide on who finally gets the prize) and the fact that a selection could not be made in the area of literature shows that the job was taken seriously and that the right lessons can be drawn from the process” The Vice President added.

Commending the Department of Education, Science and Culture of the ECOWAS Commission for the thorough job done, Madam Koroma assured the Jury that their recommendations on the processes will be taken into account in order to improve the next editions of the Award.

Speaking after a wrap up presentation was made on the trajectory of selection procedures by Dr. Emile Zida, the ECOWAS Commission’s commissioner for Education, Science and Culture Professor Leopoldo Amado expressed satisfaction over the quality of the work done which by his estimation, met the expectations of the organizers.

He also congratulated the jury for the results obtained at the end of the exercise stressing that lofty work done yielded positive result as the jurists looked beyond creeping differences.

On her part, the President of the Jury, Professor Helen Ita, recounted the different phases of the selection processes which involved examining the applications in the three categories of the Prize before nominating potential winners in accordance with the stipulated criteria.

Professor Ita noted that although the Jury struggled with nominations, it eventually fulfilling all criteria based on the General guidelines given by the ECOWAS Commission.

After due consideration by the ECOWAS Commission’s Management Committee, prizes for the awardees will be given at the next summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government meeting.