The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched its West African Regional Integration Strategy Paper (WA-RIS) for the period 2020-2025. Covid-19 pandemic obliges, the activities take place by videoconference. On 26 November, several personalities including the President of the WAEMU Commission Abdallah BOUREIMA took part in the webinar on the new strategy paper.

In his speech, Abdallah BOUREIMA praised the commitment of AfDB officials to the integration projects. He pleaded for the effective implementation of the reforms undertaken by WAEMU and ECOWAS "to achieve this great commercial area that we want to develop".

He recalled that the various regional institutions must be close to the people, with projects that have an impact on their daily lives.

It should be noted that the proposed strategy articulates the Bank's support in deepening regional integration around the transformation of West African economies. Building on the lessons learned from the previous strategy (2011-2017), the new RISP highlights the AfDB's main priority areas of intervention, which are improving the connectivity of resilient cross-border infrastructure and supporting regional businesses for their development.