Makinde: Oyo State is primed to become West Africa’s tourism hub - ITREALMS

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Governor ‘Seyi Makinde has declared that Oyo State is on a definitive path to becoming the tourism capital of South-West Nigeria, citing a strategic shift from "personality-driven" projects to "system-driven" governance, reports ITREALMS.

Speaking on Wednesday at the International Tourism Summit Oyo State 2026, held at the University of Ibadan, Makinde emphasized that his administration has spent years laying the groundwork through infrastructure, security, and policy institutionalization to ensure the sector outlives his tenure.

WATISE 4.0: Experts to scrutinize AI’s role in fortifying West Africa’s digital infrastructure - ITREALMS

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Premier regional telecommunications and business forum, the West Africa Telecommunications Infrastructure Summit and Exhibition (WATISE), is set to interrogate the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across infrastructure management and daily business operations, reports ITREALMS.

Known as WATISE 4.0 and Awards, the 2026 edition is hosted by TechnologyMirror, a leading tech and business news portal, and features the theme "The Resilient AI Fabric: Ensuring Trust, Integrity, and Sustainability in Next-Generation Network Infrastructure".

Information Integrity: UNESCO, Cabo Verde host 400 stakeholders from West Africa and the Sahel - ITREALMS

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Over 400 stakeholders drawn from across West Africa and the Sahel converged in Praia, Cabo Verde, for the Regional Conference on Information Integrity, hosted by the UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar in collaboration with the Government of Cabo Verde, reports ITREALMS.

The three-day high-level gathering held between September 3 to 5, 2025, brought together government officials, regulatory agencies, electoral commissions, civil society, media practitioners, academia, the technical community, and international organizations, to deliberate on safeguarding information integrity in an increasingly digitalized society.

Undersea cables: Nigeria demands sub-regional protection in West Africa - ITREALMS

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The Federal Government of Nigeria has called for a coordinated and multilateral approach by the West Africa sub-region to protect shared telecommunications infrastructure, and diversify connectivity to ensure uninterruptible connections, reports ITREALMS.

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, made the call in a statement delivered at the 21st West Africa Telecommunications Regulatory Assembly (WATRA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) which held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from the 19th to 22nd March 2024.

ALTON confirms damaged submarine cable along West Africa causes service disruption - ITREALMS

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The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has confirmed to ITREALMS that damaged submarine cable along the West Africa coast caused the service disruptions on Thursday.

A press statement from ALTON signed by its chairman, Engr. Engr. Gbenga Adebayo and Executive Secretary, Mr. Gbolahan Awonuga late Thursday affirmed cable cut and therefore wished to inform the general public on behalf of some members of the association that some subscribers may be experiencing challenges with accessing data services and low Internet speed.

Amazon, Ashour Corporation partner for West Africa rollout - ITREALMS

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Amazon Ring has appointed Ashour Corporation FZE, a Dubai-based company with majority stake by Nigerian-born tech billionaire and Forbes Best of Africa Leading Tech Icon, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, as authorised distributor of Amazon Bell products in West Africa.

The agreement was signed last week between the top management of Amazon Ring LLC and Ashour Corporation FZE, Dubai.

UNESCO, African ICT Foundation to explore ROAM-X @West-Africa Internet Governance Forum 2022 - ITREALMS

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The duo of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the African ICT Foundation would next month co-host a joint session at the forthcoming West-Africa Internet Governance Forum 2022, reports ITREALMS.

This session on knowledge sharing, ITREALMS gathered would explore the UNESCO ROAM-X framework for understanding and improving digital governance.

Orange, MainOne partner on West Africa submarine cable - ITREALMS

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Orange and MainOne Cable Company are pleased to announce that they have signed an agreement allowing for a major investment by Orange in the West Africa submarine cable system, MainOne, reports ITREALMS. Through this partnership Orange will acquire additional capacity, thereby reinforcing its position in the African telecommunications ecosystem. MainOne’s current cable system comprises a 7,000km submarine cable, which was launched in 2010 and has landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal. The partnership between Orange and MainOne Company will provide for the construction and installation of two new branches and stations. These will connect the cable to Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire by mid-2019. Orange will be the owner of the cable station in Dakar. Orange’s investment represents a major milestone for this project. Orange Marine, a 100% subsidiary of the Orange Group, has been chosen to manage the installation of these two new branches. Connectivity, capacity & growth opportunities Thanks to this new cable connection, local populations will benefit from better connectivity, lower prices and access to new services. Orange will benefit from multiple Terabits per second of additional bandwidth for the development of fixed and mobile data in Africa. More specifically, this cable extension is an opportunity to improve connectivity and offer a broader range of services for both Orange Côte d’Ivoire & Sonatel. In addition, MainOne offers an alternative route that guarantees the protection of voice and data traffic passing through the other cables in the area – SAT3 WASC SAFE and ACE. A key asset of the Group's broadband network in Africa Through this new partnership, Orange confirms its position as a leading player in the submarine cable market. In this role, the Group aims to develop the quality of service of its worldwide networks and facilitate the use of new digital services for end-users. Orange has a strong commitment to the African continent, which has been at the heart of the Group’s strategy for the last few decades. The Group is investing heavily in building infrastructure and providing access to communication services over the long-term. "Orange's ambition on international networks is both to meet the needs of our affiliates in their interconnection with the Internet world and to increase our leadership on the international data services wholesale market. This partnership with MainOne will allow us to strengthen our presence, with new significant assets in West Africa,” said Jérome Barré, Chief Executive Officer of Wholesale and International Networks. “The development of new digital services in Africa has fostered huge social and economic developments over the past few years. As barriers to access continue to fall with improved networks and more affordable equipment, Orange, as part of its multi-service strategy, is seeking to position itself as an important partner in the continent’s digital transformation Through this new partnership, Orange is set to secure and improve direct access to high-speed broadband services in two of its most important countries, Senegal and the Côte d’Ivoire,” said Alioune Ndiaye, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Middle East and Africa. In her comments, MainOne’s Chief Executive Officer Funke Opeke reiterated the company’s vision for a connected West Africa: “MainOne continues to lead the digital transformation of our sub-region by investing in affordable connectivity to drive economic development. Our objective is to bridge the digital divide between and within West Africa and the rest of the world. We are committed to deepening broadband penetration across West Africa and believe our investments in technologically advanced subsea infrastructure will continue to liberalize the international bandwidth market, further support Orange and other wholesale customers, and ultimately result in improved digital services in the region”. Orange is present in 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East and has 119 million customers (at 30 June 2018). With 5 billion euros of revenues in 2017, this zone is a strategic priority for the Group. Orange Money, its flagship mobile-based money transfer and financial services offer is available in 17 countries and has 38 million customers. Orange, a multi-services operator and key partner of the continent’s digital transformation, provides its expertise to support the development of new digital services in Africa and the Middle East.

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West Africa to host Boeing 737, A320 aircrafts maintenance

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Series of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircrafts are now headed to West Africa for maintenance services, courtesy European AviationSafety Agency (EASA) certification to the Bamako-based Airport Assistance Company of Mali (ASAM S.A.), reports ITRealms.

The certification comes in the heels of Approved Maintenance Organization with the ability to offer line maintenance services in West Africa for Boeing 737 (300/400/500 -  600/700/ 800) and Airbus A320 (A318 to A321) aircrafts at the Modibo Keita-Sénou international airport in Bamako, Mali.

The Chief Executive Officer of ASAM S.A., Dominique Dreuil,  expressed delight to a partnership with AMC Aviation, a French company which has been approved as a maintenance organisation by the European Aviation Safety Agency, the Bamako (Mali) station was approved and added to the list of line maintenance sites with Part 145 approval: FR.145.0674 – Regulation (EU) 1321/2014, on the 12th of December 2017.

Dreuil explained that this certification allows ASAM S.A., under the ASAM Technics label, to perform maintenance on airplanes and issue a Certificate of Release to Service (CRS) for an aircraft registered in any member country of the European Union or registered with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which makes ASAM S.A. one of the first Approved Maintenance Organizations of this kind (non-airline) in West Africa.

The first maintenance was completed by ASAM Technics’ technicians on December 13, 2017 on an Aigle Azur A 320 from Bamako to Paris/Orly.

“African companies are in a constant and urgent search for cost saving solutions, particularly in terms of aeronautical maintenance and Mali’s strong geo-strategic location allows it to deliver aeronautical services to the entire sub-region. A new terminal has just been completed at the Bamako airport and the establishment of a rigorous environment with international standards will only further increase the attractiveness of this hub”, he said.

According to the ICF International 2015 Market Study; 17 per cent of maintenance expenses of African companies are spent on line maintenance. And while the air transport market is expanding in Africa, margins remain among the lowest in the world making it ever more important to focus on reducing costs. According to a recent IATA report, margins will go down from 3.4% to 0.6% between 2017 and 2018.

ASAM Technics is now equipped with modern facilities, all the necessary tools and has met the stringent standards required to deliver line maintenance services at the Bamako airport.

Nonye Dom/GEE\

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MDXi ‘Take a break’ campaign targets enterprise customers across West Africa

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The West Africa’s premier data center solutions provider, MDXi, a MainOne company has launched an advertising campaign aimed at reinforcing the company’s position as the data center provider of choice for enterprises in the region, tagged “Take a Break” reports ITRealms.

The campaign, ITRealms gathered, would increase awareness of the MDXi brand as the most interconnected and reliable West African data center company and urges C-level executives across the region to take a break from the rigors of managing in-house Information Technology (IT) and outsource their IT infrastructure needs to MDXi.

ITRealms reports that the campaign, which began in October in Nigeria and Ghana includes a redesign of the MDXi website and press adverts in numerous national publications, building on the company’s expansion efforts across Nigeria and West Africa.

MDXi General Manager, Gbenga Adegbiji, said, the campaign is expected to spotlight the company’s data center initiatives not only in Nigeria, but across West Africa including its Accra facility, a new Data Center in Sagamu, Ogun State Nigeria as well as planned development in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.

“Unknown to local enterprises that outsource their data center needs off-shore, MDXi is home to numerous large multinationals that West Africans interact with daily online as we have raised the bar to provide world-class ICT and Data Center solutions, at par with similar facilities in Europe, Asia and America. Our Data Centers have undergone rigorous compliance audits to ensure we are able to provide same level of service locally that our international customers are used to” he said.

ITRealms recalls that MainOne’s MDXI has put Nigeria on the global map, with its premier Tier III Lekki Data Center, the only data center in West Africa that is authorized to process and store payment card information with its PCI DSS certification. MDXI is also certified as ISO 27001, 9001 compliant and is the only SAP certified provider of hosting services in the region. 

The company ITRealms further gathered, has contributed significantly to deepening Nigeria’s digital economy with its highly available, carrier-neutral ICT infrastructure, enabling network operators and content providers exchange traffic within its data center. As West Africa’s most connected data center and home of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), MDXi has impacted internet traffic in-country, by localizing traffic, reducing transmission costs and improving user experiences.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Packaging technology for showcase in West Africa

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The producers of process and packaging technologies are for showcase at the forthcoming West Africa Agrofood 2017 slated for Accra, Ghana, reports ITRealms.

The German trade fair specialists, FairTrade confirmed to ITRealms that the 4th edition of Agrofood & Plastprintpack West Africa slated for 05-07 December 2017 at the Accra International Conference Centre in Accra, Ghana.

ITRealms gathered that producers of process and packaging technology obviously see great chances for business in Ghana and the surrounding West African countries, hence they are participating in this event.

Official national pavilions, ITRealms gathered, have been confirmed by Algeria, Belarus, France and the Netherlands, in addition to leading exhibitors from 10 countries.

According to VDMA German Food Processing and Packaging Association, Ghanaian imports of process and packaging technology increased by 10 per cent in 2016 to 77 million euro whereas West African imports of the same also went up by 10 per cent to 557 million euro.

Also, the association said, Ghanaian imports in the plastics, printing and packaging sector rose sharply last year, as Plastics technology up 4 per cent to 23.4 million euro; Printing and paper technology up 32 per cent to 22.4 million euro; and Packaging technology up 2 per cent to 30.1 million euro.

FairTrade told ITRealms they were not surprised that producers of process and packaging technology saw the opportunity in Ghana and its surrounding West African countries.

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Orange brand in Liberia, continues strong presence in West Africa

ITRealms:

In line with its Essentials2020 strategic plan, Orange has launched its brand in Liberia with Cellcom Liberia becoming Orange Liberia, reports ITRealms.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Orange Group and Chairman and CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, Bruno Mettling, said that following the rebranding of Cellcom, Orange Liberia has joined one of the world’s most powerful brands and stands to benefit from being part of a large international group.

ITRealms gathered that Orange would provide its marketing expertise and world-class technical capability to further strengthen the operator’s established network and enhance customer service in Liberia.

ITRealms reports that with over 1.6 million customers at the end of February 2017, Orange Liberia is the leading mobile operator in Liberia in terms of customers.

Founded in 2004, the mobile operator has been a driving force in democratizing access to telecommunication services across the country, despite difficult market conditions. It has always been a precursor in terms of network deployment and in 2012 was the first operator in Liberia to launch 3G (HSPA+) services following by 4G-LTE services in 2016. Orange will pursue this strategy and will continue to invest in the development of its network where the company is already a market leader.

With a population of 4.6 million people and relatively low mobile penetration rate (70% of the population) the country has a high growth potential for Orange. To support this development, the Group will work to reinforce the quality of access in several areas:

Chuks Egbune/GEE 

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Nigeria, hub for innovation in West Africa says Facebook CPO, Chris Cox

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The Chief Product Officer at Facebook, Chris Cox has concluded its official visit to West African countries with some take homes, including feedbacks and inspiration from the developer and content creator communities, reports ITRealms.

Cox, who had since returned to California base, followed his visits to Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, describing Nigeria as a hub for innovation and creativity.

His mission to West Africa was to find out how the region’s creatives, developers and entrepreneurs are using Facebook and Instagram to bring their passions to life.

“It’s been an inspiring week meeting with some of the top artists, publishers, entrepreneurs, developers, and social media stars across the region. This is a region that creates some of the most interesting cultures in the world; from food, to fashion, to music, to art. They are at the leading edge of using mobile technology to build communities in their cities, countries, and around the region, and in solving local problems with local solutions. We left inspired, and with insights on the real challenges we have to improve our services, from internet connectivity to more regional support and tools” he said.

Cox started his trip on a high by seeing Femi Kuti live on stage at the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos. Chris, who is an accomplished pianist, was invited to play live on stage with Femi, an experience he will never forget.

“It was an honor to play live with one of my musical heroes. The Shrine is one of the great institutions in music history and in the political history of the region. It was also the first time a concert has been live broadcast on Facebook from The Shrine. Femi’s team was inspired by how many folks around the city, the region, and the world wanted to tune in, and we were too. We were surprised by how many Nigerians told us how exciting it was to see a concert from there. We think there’s a great opportunity for Live to give the whole world a window into some of these gems of local culture,” he said.

ITRealms gathered that whilst Cox was in Nigeria he spoke at Social Media Week Lagos, the region’s premier new media and social media conference, highlighting Nigeria’s status as a hub for innovation and creativity because of its fast-growing mobile technology sector and its vibrant film and music industries.

He focused on how the world is moving to digital video, with formats such as virtual reality, Live video broadcast and 360 video giving people new ways to tell their stories.

Cox also had a stopover in Ghana where he visited the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra and met the team from Asoriba, an already hugely successful software for church communities and is extremely important and central in Ghana and Nigeria.

The CPO later headed to Senegal in continuation with his official visit to meet with some stakeholders at 'Stories of Senegal' event and session with local technology entrepreneurs where he took part in a discussion, before jetting back to California.

Remmy Nweke with additional report by APO/ED, Ops

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Converge Global is Red Hat premier partner in West Africa

ITRealms:

The world's leading provider of open source solutions, Red Hat Incorporated, has named Converge Global Concept Technologies as its first premier partner in West Africa, reports ITRealms.

Converge Global Concept Technologies, ITRealms gathered is an IT services organization that specializes in the deployment of mission-critical technology systems, solutions and services.

Also ITRealms reports that as a Premier Partner, the firm would benefit from Red Hat's deep open source expertise and technical skills. With a particular emphasis on Red Hat’s cloud and middleware portfolio, Converge Global Concept Technologies aims to give Nigerian and other West African businesses a multi-platform, scalable and more secure route to the cloud.

Open Source is now so much more than Linux, and has been tried, tested and is trusted by many of the world’s biggest companies, for example, 100 per cent of commercial banks in the Fortune 500 rely on Red Hat. Red Hat and Converge Global Concept Technologies look forward to helping local businesses in West Africa explore the potential and reap the benefits of open source.

The new collaboration will make available a wide range of innovative private and hybrid cloud solutions such as Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat CloudForms and Red Hat OpenShift, backed up by Red Hat’s enterprise-grade security, support and training.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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MainOne’s data center achieves West Africa 1st SAP certification

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The data center subsidiary of MainOne, the MDXi, has achieved SAP-certified provider of Infrastructure Services for SAP solutions, reports ITRealms.

This new certification, according to the Temitope Osunrinde of the Public Relations and Digital Communications at MainOne, confers on MDXi the ability to deliver high-quality cloud and infrastructure operations services for customers running SAP solutions and recognizes the company as the region’s first SAP Certified Data Center.

The Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Funke Opeke, while receiving the certificate was quoted in a press statement made available to ITRealms , said it would afford MDXi to host and manage SAP applications utilizing the company’s enterprise cloud platforms, across its private, public and hybrid cloud solutions, via a consumption-based delivery model.

As a SAP-certified provider of hosting services, she said, MDXi would offer a cost-effective yet reliable delivery model for mission-critical applications for customers of SAP, stressing that SAP customers who rely on MainOne’s data center for hosting services will be empowered to focus on the business value of their solutions and benefit from reduced operational expenses that a commercial data center provides.

"We are pleased to receive the SAP certification for Infrastructure Operations Services, as it validates our commitment to providing world-class data center and cloud solutions in Nigeria. With this certification from SAP, it is now possible for Nigerian enterprises and businesses to host SAP applications in-country on MDXi’s Cloud platform and optimize their accounting processes, data analytics and sales chain management. This will improve response times for SAP applications, ensure data security and assure more cost effective subscription charges.”

Equally speaking the Managing Director of SAP West Africa, Kudzai Danha noted ht more than ever, SAP Africa is excited about the SAP HANA certification of partners like MainOne. The current market demand for attractive business applications in the cloud presents great business opportunities and through SAP HANA®, customers can innovate and redesign business processes, capitalizing on the agility of this unique platform.”

SAP HANA Cloud is an in-memory platform that runs analytics applications smarter, business processes faster and data infrastructures simpler! It is the foundation for all the data needs of a business, removing the burden of maintaining separated legacy systems and siloed data, so business can run simple in this new digital economy.

The SAP certification process is rigorous and culminates with an onsite audit session to determine that the provider meets all the local and global requirements as stipulated by SAP to run its applications. Some of the criteria include quality and knowledge management, data center, network and connectivity, back up and data recovery, IT service management and project management. In order to meet this certification requirements, MDXi demonstrated its professional competence in all aspects of infrastructure operations including possessing a comprehensive operations manual, system landscape diagrams, security guidelines, OS access, required technical skills amongst others.

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Coscharis Tech emerges APC best distributor in West Africa

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Nigeria’s Coscharis Technologies, an information and communications technology (ICT) company based in Lagos, has been awarded the APC Best Distributor Award for West Africa, reports ITRealms.

The award was handed down to Coscharis at the just concluded Middle East and Africa (MEA) Distributors Conference 2016, organised by APC by Schneider Electric in Geneva, Switzerland.

ITRealms reports that Coscharis Technologies, which was incorporated in 1993, is a subsidiary of the Coscharis Group, one of the most diversified conglomerates in Nigeria. The company is an authorized partner cum distributor to some of the world’s best ICT brands such as ASUS, APC, Samsung, HP (Hewlett Packard), IBM, Microsoft, etc.

The Vice President, English West Africa, APC by Schneider, Ayo Adegboye, said that Coscharis Technologies is indeed a dependable IT partner of choice. He further stated that the Best Distributor Award is well deserved and encouraged the management not to relent in its pursuit of excellence.

Responding, the Managing Director, Coscharis Technologies, Sunday Mukoro, dedicated the award to God Almighty for the grace to excel against all odds. He thanked partners nationwide and all company staff for helping to achieve the feat.Mukoroalso pledged that Coscharis Technologies would continue to be always be in the forefront of making APC by Schnieder products available to every Nigerian.

Okoli Vincent/GEE

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WACSOF tasks ECOWAS on terms limits in West Africa

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The West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) has expressed reservation over term elongation in West Africa and called on Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to checkmate the trend, ITRealms reports.

This subject matter will dominate discussions as 30 participants representing leading Civil Society Organization (CSOs) in the area of democratic governance in West Africa meet in Dakar (Senegal) from September 9 to 10, 2015.

ITRealms gathered that the meeting is being convened with experts on constitutional matters with the aim of addressing the issue of presidential term limits in West Africa. The two-day meeting will seek to harmonize the positions of civil society actors on the issue of the limitation of presidential terms in West Africa. These organizations will also discuss ways to convince ECOWAS member states to consider and adopt a common provision on this issue.

A press statement  signed by Auwal Ibrahim  Musa (Rafsanjani), Acting General Secretary for WACSOF/FOSCAO and Mathias Hounkpe, the Political  Governance Programme Manager at OSIWA, the group seeks to push ECOWAS to take the bold step of adopting term limits at community level, adding that such a provision  be included in the texts governing the organization. The meeting of the  major CSOs in West Africa, ITRealms gathered, is meant to discuss and develop a strategy for this objective. 

The event is supported  by OSIWA, WACSOF acts in consideration of its mandate and capacity as the civil society coordination hub in West Africa and in connection to its supportive role to ECOWAS agenda, ITRealms reports.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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