ABUJA, Nigeria, July 31, 2026/APO Group/ —
On July 31, 2026, in Dakar, Senegal, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission concluded the meeting of the Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) of member states. Held from July 27 to 31, 2026, this meeting was part of the implementation of the ECOWAS Statistical Policy, which aims to strengthen the harmonization of national statistical systems in order to produce reliable, comparable, and timely data to inform public policy and support regional integration.
Over the course of five days, the Directors-General of the NSIs, experts from the ECOWAS Commission, and representatives of technical and financial partners assessed the progress made in implementing the Regional Statistical Program (RSP 2023–2027) and the PHASAO and PHASAOC projects. Participants also reviewed several strategic methodological documents designed to strengthen the quality, consistency, and comparability of official statistics produced in member states.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the Directors-General approved several regional methodological guides intended to serve as common references for the production of official statistics within the ECOWAS region. These include the Methodological Guide for the Industrial Production Index (IPI), the Methodological Guide for the Business Register (RSE), and the Methodological Guide for Public Debt Statistics. Participants also reviewed the Methodological Guide for the Table of Government Financial Transactions (TOFE-ECOWAS) as well as the guides on Quarterly National Accounts (QNA), for which they made recommendations with a view to their finalization and harmonized implementation.
The meeting also provided an opportunity to review progress on regional statistical modernization projects, challenges related to the transition to the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008), the development of quarterly national accounts, the strengthening of statistical business registers, and the integration of new technologies and innovative data sources into statistical production.
These results mark an important milestone in the implementation of the ECOWAS Statistical Policy. The validated guidelines will help enhance the quality, comparability, and availability of official statistics needed to monitor Community policies, achieve macroeconomic convergence, and deepen regional integration. As emphasized by Dr. Kaliou Sylla, Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture—represented by the Acting Director of Research and Statistics at the ECOWAS Commission, Professor N’Zué Félix Fofana—in his closing remarks, “Data today is a lever for sovereignty, economic transformation, and regional integration,” thereby underscoring the strategic role of statistics in the development of evidence-based public policies and in the realization of ECOWAS’s Vision 2050.
The Directors-General also made several recommendations to the member states and the ECOWAS Commission. These include the gradual adoption of validated methodological guidelines, capacity building for national statistical systems, the adoption of the legal instruments necessary for the implementation of regional standards, support for member states in their transition to the 2008 SNA, and the development of digital solutions and technical cooperation mechanisms to accelerate statistical harmonization in the region.
At the conclusion of the meeting, participants reaffirmed their commitment to translating the adopted recommendations into concrete actions and to continuing to strengthen regional cooperation in order to equip ECOWAS with a harmonized, modern, and efficient statistical system capable of effectively supporting public policies, monitoring community programs, macroeconomic convergence, and the implementation of ECOWAS Vision 2050.
