A regional group of fifteen countries, the Economic Community Of West African States, ECOWAS, on Sunday stressed the need for solidarity among its oil importing and exporting members, so as to ease the impact of rising world oil prices
A regional group of fifteen countries, the Economic Community Of West African States, ECOWAS, on Sunday stressed the need for solidarity among its oil importing and exporting members, so as to ease the impact of rising world oil prices.
In a statement in Abuja at the end of a two-day ECOWAS council of ministers' meeting, it said the bloc "strongly appealed to oil-exporting countries to show solidarity with their net oil-importing counterparts to help mitigate the problems in their countries".
On Saturday, the 15-nation 15 Economic Community of West African States -- which includes oil producers Nigeria and Ivory Coast -- calling rising oil prices a major challenge to economic growth in the sub-region.
The ministers also renewed a call for ECOWAS member states to effectively implement a protocol on free movement of persons and right of residence -- a key goal of the bloc that was founded in 1975.
They commended efforts undertaken by Nigeria and Niger, which have embarked on joint projects to facilitate the implementation of the protocol.
An extraordinary meeting of ECOWAS agriculture, finance and trade ministers is scheduled for Monday in Nigerian capital Abuja to hammer out a regional strategy to address the global food crisis and its impact on the sub-region.
