President Bola Tinubu has arrived at Banquet Hall of the State House ahead of the 67th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.

The 67th Ordinary Session comes six months after the last one held in December 2024, during which the bloc approved the exit of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from the regional bloc.

It also coincides with President Tinubu’s end to his second term as Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS.

President Tinubu was re-elected on July 7, 2024, for a second term after his first tenure which began in July 9, 2023.

‘End Pit-To-Port Dependency’

At the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja, on Saturday, Tinubu called on West African nations to end the practice of exporting raw minerals without processing them locally — a trend he described as the “pit-to-port” dependency.

Instead, he called for investment in regional value chains, manufacturing, and innovation, stressing the urgency for collective economic transformation across the region.

“The era of warm pit to the port must end. We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value, jobs, technology, and manufacturing.

“To be resource-rich is not enough — we must become value chain smart and invest in local processing and regional manufacturing,” he said.

The summit, an initiative of President Tinubu in his capacity as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, Tinubu warned that intraregional trade within West Africa remained under 10 per cent, which he attributed not to a lack of political will but to poor coordination.

“Opportunity alone does not guarantee transformation. The global economy will not wait for West Africa to get its hands together — nor should we.

“Rather than competing in isolation or relying on external partners, we must strengthen our regional value chain, invest in infrastructure, and coordinate our policies,” he stated.

While highlighting the region’s youthful population as its greatest asset, he cautioned that it could become a liability if not supported through investment in education, digital infrastructure, and enterprise.

“Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks. We must design them together, or they will collapse separately.

“From the Lagos to Abidjan highway and the West African Power Pool to creative industry initiatives, our joint projects show what’s possible when we work together. But we must move from declarations to concrete deals — from policy frameworks to practical implementation,” Tinubu added.