ECOWAS animal health networks are meeting in Lomé, Togo, from 6 to 8 October 2026 to discuss regional governance of animal health and adopt new surveillance tools. The 11th annual meeting brings together veterinary services heads, laboratory and epidemiology network focal points, and representatives of regional bodies. A ministerial gathering on the sidelines will consider strategies on donkey conservation, foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza.
ECOWAS Commission President H.E. General Birame Diop met IMF and World Bank officials in Washington, D.C., on 28 and 29 September 2026, during the 81st UN General Assembly session. Discussions covered West Africa's economic outlook, regional integration, and collaboration under an existing ECOWAS-IMF memorandum of understanding. The parties agreed to hold a high-level mission to the ECOWAS Commission in the third week of November 2026.
The Africa Credit Rating Agency has formally launched after nearly a decade of planning, beginning with a 2017 African Union mandate and culminating in a Mauritius headquarters. The agency is framed as complementary to Moody's, S&P and Fitch, with a mandate to produce fair, independent assessments of African economies.
The Africa Credit Rating Agency is being read by some as a challenger to Fitch, Moody's and S&P Global. Misheck Mutize argues its real purpose is to deepen African capital markets, where fewer than 5% of an estimated US$4 trillion domestic capital base carries a formal rating.
HubPharm Africa, a Nigerian healthcare startup led by Tope Kareem, won the US$30,000 grand prize at the second ECOWAS Startup Awards in Abuja on 30 September 2026. Gaynako of Senegal and My Opinion of Côte d'Ivoire took the runner-up prizes, while the Commission launched the ECOWAS Private Sector Development Academy and ECOWAS Startup Networks.
ECOWAS, the European Union and GIZ opened a two-day workshop in Abuja on September 29, 2026, to launch the Regional Energy Governance and Information System in West Africa. The project, funded by the EU with a budget of 3,000,000 million Euros and implemented by GIZ, aims to harmonise regional energy governance and strengthen the ECOWAS Energy Information System.
