The second conference geared towards assembling representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who are currently residing in the United States of America, otherwise known as members of the Diaspora, is progressing.<\/p>\n
Though the program is now a subject of confirmation by His Excellency M. Kadre Desire Ouedraogo the ECOWAS Commission President and his Commissioners in Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria, the date, time and a comprehensive list of events and activities that will characterize the conference will soon be released to the public.<\/p>\n
According to the Dean of the ECOWAS Ambassadors Group (EAG) Sierra Leone\u2019s Ambassador Bockari Kortu Stevens, \u201cthe ECOWAS Commission in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the EAG are working collectively in the planning of what would metamorphose to the \u201cSecond ECOWAS Diaspora conference\u201d.<\/p>\n
It has already been agreed that the Diaspora conference will be tailored to see active participation from individual country representatives drawn from a wide scope: different states in the United States, and selection will be made through the ECOWAS member States Embassies in Washington DC.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe diaspora has enormous potential which if properly tapped could transform West Africa to a more developed and enviable region.\u201d Said Ambassador Stevens.<\/p>\n
Though he did not give any figure, Ambassador Stevens said the United States population has some members of African descent, who over the years, have earned enviable positions in every segment and sector of the American Society.<\/p>\n
He described the diaspora as among others, an economic force which \u201cremittances alone, significantly contributes to financial flows in our ECOWAS region.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to him, the expected outcomes of the program include \u201cthe establishment of a platform to mainstream Diaspora and United States capacities into ECOWAS development efforts: promote or advocate for ECOWAS in the United States and the rest of the World: attract Diaspora and American investments (long-term\/low cost capital) to the ECOWAS region and upscale ECOWAS market (including AGOA) to the US, technology transfer etc.<\/p>\n
Ambassador Bockari Stevens said the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma takes the issue of Diaspora very seriously: and the government does not only have a Diaspora Affairs office at State House, but has also described the Diaspora as the fifth region.<\/p>\n
\u00a0On Saturday June 14, 2014, a meeting at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 3519 International Court NW Washington DC chaired by Ambassador Bockari Kortu Stevens not only saw the briefing of ECOWAS Ambassadors on strides made, and status of the conference, but also witnessed the handing over of a report prepared by the experts (a Representative of Embassies of ECOWAS Countries Mr. Christopher J. Nippy of Liberia Embassy & \u00a0ECOWAS Commissioner Kalilou Traore for Industry and Private sector promotion – \u00a0ECOWAS Commission in the Federal Republic of Nigeria) to Ambassador Bockari Kortu Stevens and colleagues for consideration.<\/p>\n
The host, Ambassador (Professor) Ade Adefuye of the Federal Republic of Nigeria accredited to the United States of America welcomed his colleagues and reasserted that he will continue to provide support to the efforts of the ECOWAS Ambassador\u2019s Group and its region.<\/p>\n
\u00a0It could be recalled that the first ECOWAS and African Diaspora Conference (ADC) was held in collaboration with the African Business Chambers of Commerce (ABCC) USA in Detroit Michigan, USA from 29-30th<\/sup> March 2011.<\/p>\n Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The second conference geared towards assembling representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who are currently residing in the United States of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":7523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,751],"tags":[19117,1219],"class_list":["post-68649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-global-news","tag-2nd-ecowas-diaspora-conference","tag-ecowas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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