The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has begun major reforms to address a growing staffing crisis across its institutions, following prolonged recruitment delays, workforce shortages, and the recent withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger from the regional bloc.
Speaking at an extraordinary session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers held on Thursday in Abuja, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, said the intervention became necessary to tackle persistent administrative bottlenecks and outdated manual recruitment systems that have slowed down the organization’s efficiency.
Dr. Touray explained that the Commission is seeking the Council’s guidance on how to fairly distribute vacant positions among the remaining member states and determine the employment status of staff with dual nationalities.
He said that over the past three years, ECOWAS had struggled to fill vacant positions due to restrictive staff regulations, resulting in an imbalance between available roles and actual hires. To address this, the Commission is now partnering with recruitment firms and introducing an e-recruitment platform to modernize and accelerate the hiring process.
“With the sudden departure of many of our workforce who are nationals of countries that exited the organization—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—we face the challenge of replacing them. We need the Council to guide us on the equitable distribution of these positions among member states without compromising competence,” Dr. Touray said.
He stressed that the current situation calls for urgent policy direction from the Council, especially on equity, inclusivity, and fairness in staff distribution.
“Our regulations do not provide specific guidance on allocating vacant positions to ensure balance. It has therefore become necessary to seek Council’s input to move forward,” he added.
In her remarks, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, reaffirmed Nigeria’s unwavering support for ECOWAS, describing the ongoing exercise as vital to restoring the organization’s full operational capacity.
“We fully recognize the importance of this process as an essential step toward ensuring that all existing vacancies are duly filled,” she said.
Also speaking, the Chair of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Musa Timothy Kabba, urged fairness, merit, and inclusivity in the recruitment process to strengthen regional unity and citizens’ confidence in the bloc.
“The strength of ECOWAS lies in its people. Every appointment must reflect our diversity while maintaining high standards of competence and integrity. Only through transparency can we rebuild trust and unity across the region,” Kabba stated.
He cautioned against political interference in recruitment, emphasizing that professionalism, equity, and meritocracy remain central to ECOWAS’s credibility as a people-driven institution.
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