Dakar, SENEGAL, June 11, 2022

Recognizing that neither the national laws/legislation on PPPs nor the ECOWAS Procurement Code, deal adequately with the development of regional PPP projects and convinced that adopting a set of consistent documents for identifying, developing and implementing regional PPP projects is of immense benefit to the Community, the 60^th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government on December 12, 2021 endorsed a Policy for Regional Public–Private Partnership Projects and its associated Guidelines.

On the other hand, the Infrastructure Department through the PPDU and under the Commission’s partnership with the Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECID) and the World Bank, has been implementing out a capacity building programme designed to improve the Knowledge capacity of Member States and Regional Project Agencies to prepare, monitor and manage regional PPP projects in their domain to ensure efficiency of development and service delivery.

Likewise, the Private Sector department of the ECOWAS Commission, within the implementation of the West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP), in collaboration with UNIDO, wishes to establish a regional online platform and stakeholder network to promote learning and sharing of information and knowledge on PPPs.

At the same time, the PPDU, within the ambit of its programme, “To strengthen and support the development of functional project Management and Monitoring capacities in ECOWAS MS”, intends to facilitate the establishment and organization of the PPP regulators Forum which will bring together first and foremost National and Regional PPP regulators as well as Private Sector/ Investors, DFIs and PPP practitioners in the region on an annual basis. Consequently, the ECOWAS Commission organized from 8^th -11^th June, 2022, the 1^st Regional PPP Stakeholder’s Forum which is jointly financed with the European Union. The objective of this meeting is to establish a platform where PPP stakeholders in the region can exchange experiences and ideas, share best practices and regional PPP issues can be discussed and appropriate frameworks adopted with the overall benefit of fast-tracking the development of regional Infrastructure

PPP specialists and representatives of Member States, sub-regional organizations (Mano River Union, OMVG), ECOWAS Commission and its agencies (PPDU, WAPP, ERERA), development partners (AECID, European Union, UNIDO), EBID and representatives of ECOWAS Regional Business Associations.

The opening ceremony was marked by welcome remarks by Mr. Kebba FYE, Ag Director PPDU on behalf of the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure Mr. Pathe GUEYE, remarks by Mr. David PASQUALE, Representative of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID), remarks by Mr Rafik FEKI Representative of UNIDO, and,  an opening  address delivered by Mr. Karim NDIAYE, on behalf of Mr. Amadou HOTT, the Honorable Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation of the Republic of Senegal.

The speakers underlined the importance of establishing this West African Regional PPP stakeholders’ forum which will allow for the review of ECOWAS regional PPP projects and to share experiences/best practices to invigorate the interest of Member States in developing governance structures, legislation and regulations related to PPP projects.

The online Regional platform and stakeholder network was officially launched during the Forum. The UNIDO representative for Senegal, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania, Mr. Christophe Yvetot presented a Handover certificate to the representatives of the ECOWAS Commission.

The Forum made the following key recommendations: to include economic and social infrastructure in the regional project pipeline in order to achieve the ECOWAS Vision 2050; to continuously build the capacity of experts from Member States; and to ensure sound project preparation, especially in financial structuring to enable effective contract management.

Within the margins of the Regional Forum, a delegation of participants,  led by Mr PATHE GUEYE, ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, visited the innovative Regional Express Train (TER) project in Senegal. The site visit which was personally conducted by Mr. MOUNTAGA SY, Director General of APIX-Senegal, (the Government’s project implementation agency), enabled the delegation to have a better understanding of the project thanks to the salient points presented.

The meeting ended with the participants thanking the Government and the people of Senegal through His Excellency President MACKY SALL for the warm welcome and excellent facilities provided to them.