Opening this Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Lagos, Nigeria, a meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to examine and validate the draft of a new 5-year Strategic Business Plan (SBP) and the Communication strategy for the PPDU, strategic frameworks which will make it possible to intensify the development of infrastructure and interconnectivity in the region and increase the visibility of this specialized Agency.

The new Strategic Business Plan will serve as a comprehensive development framework for the PPDU, fully consistent with ECOWAS Vision 2050, which is to achieve “a fully integrated community of peoples living in a peaceful and prosperous region, with strong institutions that respect fundamental freedoms, working for inclusive and sustainable development.” As for the Communication strategy, it will aim to enable the PPDU to communicate its missions, actions and results more effectively to its various target audiences. It will serve as a framework for raising awareness and mobilizing resources around the PPDU’s activities in order to encourage the support of political decision-makers in Member States, potential investors and citizens of the Community.

The formulation of recommendations to guide the finalization of the PPDU SBP; (i) facilitation of dialogue and discussion between the PPDU and development partners; (ii) obtaining a consensus on the modalities of updating the ECOWAS Regional Infrastructure Master Plan; and (iii) validation of the Communication Strategy were the various points on the agenda of this important meeting.

Addressing the participants on behalf of Mr. Sediko Douka, Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalization of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Keba Fye, Acting Director of the PPDU, emphasized the importance of these strategic documents in the achievement of his agency’s objectives and expressed satisfaction with the achievements made by the PPDU since it began its operation in October 2014, thanks to the support of the ECOWAS authorities and technical and financial partners.

The participants present in Lagos included experts representing Development Partners (AECID, EU Delegation, EBID, BOAD, GIZ, IsDB), representatives from the ECOWAS Commission and Specialized Agencies (Office of the Vice President, Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalization; Department of Economic Affairs and Agriculture; WAPP, ECREEE and WRCC), as well as from the Office of the Auditor General and the PPDU.

The ECOWAS Project Preparation and Development Unit (PPDU) is a specialized agency of the ECOWAS Commission responsible for the preparation and structuring of regional infrastructure projects. In December 2021, the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government adopted a Regional Infrastructure Master Plan whose objective is to identify regional infrastructure needs to meet the projected economic growth and development needs of the region over the next twenty-five years (2020-2045).

This master plan contains 201 integrated regional projects (145 regional investment projects and 56 non-binding projects) covering the energy, ICT, transport and water sectors and is estimated at 131 billion US dollars.

Similarly, the Authority of Heads of State and Government also adopted, in December 2021, a regional PPP policy and guidelines that aim to facilitate the increasing use of a coherent and effective PPP approach for the provision of regional infrastructure and public services in the ECOWAS region. The guidelines provide a clear description of the process, roles and responsibilities, and the decision-making and management structure for the preparation and implementation of regional PPP projects.