Jane Salihu
The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Memunatu Ibrahima, has called for urgent reforms in the region’s education curriculum to align learning with labour market demands and tackle rising unemployment across West Africa.
Ibrahima said education must be deliberately structured to meet the socio-economic realities of the region if member states of the Economic Community of West African States are to harness their youthful population for development and regional integration.
Speaking at the closing of a delocalised joint committee meeting held in Lome, Togo, she stressed that education remains the most powerful tool for transforming the region’s demographic advantage into economic prosperity.
Represented by the Chairman of the Joint Committee, Hon. Orlando Pereira Diaz, a member of the Cape Verde delegation to the regional parliament, the Speaker said ECOWAS must prioritise investment in human capacity.
“If ECOWAS intends to be more than a geographical space, if it truly wants to become a community in the broadest sense, then our greatest investment must be in the minds and capacities of our people,” she said.
According to her, aligning educational curricula with sectors such as agriculture, technology, renewable energy, creative industries and entrepreneurship will enable young people to contribute meaningfully to economic growth in the sub-region.
“Education continues to be the cornerstone of this aspiration because it is the great multiplier. It transforms competence into productivity and converts our demographic strength into economic power,” she added.
Ibrahima also warned that failure to take advantage of West Africa’s youthful population could worsen unemployment, irregular migration and social instability across the region.
“We must choose to harness this demographic dividend or risk the consequences of unemployment, migration and social instability. Aligning curricula with labour market realities is therefore not just an educational reform; it is an economic and security imperative,” she said.
She further assured that the ECOWAS Parliament would continue to support policies aimed at strengthening cooperation among governments, universities, technical institutions and the private sector to ensure that education in the region translates into innovation, productivity and shared prosperity.
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