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Showing posts with label Economic Community of West African States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economic Community of West African States. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2015

ECOWAS assists Nigeria with observation data



The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is assisting Nigeria to monitor her territorial waters through the Earth Observation Data (EOD), NaijaAgroNet reports. 

The Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Architect Sonny Echono disclosed that the monitoring would include the marine waters, provision of security for fishing vessels and their operators and also to ensure the protection of the environment in the coastal waters of Nigeria and West Africa.

Earth observation data is the information about planet Earth's physical, chemical and biological systems via remote sensing technologies supplemented by earth surveying techniques, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Echono, NaijaAgroNet gathered, stated this while addressing stakeholders recently in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Regional Steering Committee Meeting of ECOWAS on Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA) with the Theme “Enhancing the Use of Earth Observation to support Fisheries Management and Safety at Sea in Western Africa”

Represented by the Ministry’s Director of Fisheries, Aderemi Abioye, Echono said  “The partnership through ECOWAS was to build platforms for collaborations and partnerships with other African countries in the West African regions to harmonize our regulations and monitor the operations of fishing vessels across the region,” NaijaAgroNet reports.

He added that as part of efforts to meet the nation’s fish demands “the federal ministry of agriculture is promoting aqua -culture, accommodating new investment in fish production, encouraging and empowering artisanal fishermen  to be able to produce fish from rivers, lagoons lakes and all inland waters in the country”

Another keynote, NaijaAgroNet learnt, came from the Provost, University of Ghana Prof. Ebenezer Owusu who said “the goal of the workshop is to help curb illegal unregulated and unreported fishing activities using satellite imagery as global losses due to IUU or pirate fishing which are estimated to be between USD $10b, about N199billion  and US $23.5b about N4.67trillion annually.
“West Africa waters are estimated to have the highest levels of IUU fishing in the World, representing up to 37 per cent of the regions catch. Adding that in addition to economic losses pirate fishing in West Africa severely compromises the food security and livelihoods of coastal communities,” he said

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Tuesday, November 04, 2014

ECOWAS sets 2020 as new deadline for single currency




The Director, Strategic Planning at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mr. Essien Abel-Essien has revealed that the year 2020 is now a new date set for a single currency take off, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

Just as the Head, Ghana office of ECOWAS and the Commission Chairman on strategic planning framework for 2016-2020, Mr. Bonaventure Adjavor, reaffirmed this, urging member states to set aside language differences in the region to ensure a single currency note in 2020.

Adjavor DigitalSENSE Business News gathered said at the end of their strategic meeting in Nigeria that the currency would facilitate the movement of people and communication in the region.

Further, Abel-Essien said that the committee was working tirelessly to ensure that single currency note for the region is achieved by 2020.

Upon completion of their work, Abel-Essien said, the implementation of the decision would largely rest on the ECOWAS Heads of States. Stressing that the meeting was organized to garner ideas that would make certain the preparation of strategic documents reflects the aspiration of ECOWAS vision 2020.

"The 2020 vision seeks to create a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive region and built on good governance.  It will also give people the capacity to access and harness its enormous resources through the creation of opportunities for sustainable development and environmental preservation,” he said.

Additionally, Abel-Essien pointed out that the 2016-2020 vision is specifically to ensure congruence of purpose and to ensure the effective mobilization and utilization of the region’s abundant resources and comparative advantage.

This, he said, will also provide the general framework for advancing integration wok in the region and guiding national development planning process.



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