ECOWAS CONVENES TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP WORKSHOPS TO ADVANCE HARMONISATION OF REGIONAL STATISTICAL STANDARDS

The Directorate of Research and Statistics of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has commenced a series of Technical Working Group (TWG) workshops aimed at the alignment and finalisation of key technical statistical documents in English, French, and Portuguese. The workshops, taking place in Abuja, Nigeria from 17 April to 7 May 2026, form a critical component of ECOWAS’ ongoing efforts to harmonise statistical standards and production methods across Member States. This initiative is essential to strengthening regional integration, improving data comparability, and supporting evidence-based policymaking across West Africa.

In his opening remarks, the Acting Director of the Directorate of Research and Statistics, Professor Felix Fofana N’ZUE, underscored the strategic importance of the workshops in advancing the regional statistical harmonisation agenda. He noted that the sessions would provide an opportunity for final reviews of the technical documents, ensuring consistency across the three official ECOWAS languages and alignment with internationally recognised statistical standards.

Professor N’ZUE emphasised that the harmonisation process is vital to achieving a universal understanding of statistical methodologies across Member States. He called on participants to approach the exercise with the highest level of professionalism, collaboration, and technical rigor to ensure the successful delivery of outputs that meet global best practices.

The workshops have brought together experienced statisticians and technical experts from National Statistical Offices, public finance institutions, and other relevant professional bodies across the ECOWAS region. Participants are organised into specialised working groups based on their areas of expertise, enabling focused discussions and in-depth reviews of sector-specific methodologies.

Through these collaborative sessions, ECOWAS aims to produce robust, standardised technical documents that will guide the production of high-quality, comparable statistics across Member States, thereby enhancing regional economic governance and development planning. The technical sessions cover a wide range of priority statistical domains, including national accounts (annual and quarterly), the Industrial Production Index (IPI), the establishment and management of business registers, public finance statistics, public debt statistics, and external trade statistics.

The Directorate of Research and Statistics reaffirms its commitment to strengthening statistical systems within the region and fostering greater cooperation among Member States in the pursuit of reliable and harmonised data.