LAUNCH OF THE ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOR THE ‘CREATING OPPOR...

As part of the Creating Opportunities for Youth and Women in Africa (COYWA) programme, the CDJS/ECOWAS, in partnership with AUDA-NEPAD and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), launched on 23 September 2026, an online training course for young entrepreneurs and young women from ECOWAS member states. This initiative aims to strengthen their skills, stimulate innovation and support projects with a significant socio-economic impact, and demonstrates a shared commitment to more inclusive regional development.

Bringing together nearly seventy-five participants from the member states, the training forms part of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and ECOWAS’s Vision 2050, which set out the ambition for a prosperous, inclusive and resilient West Africa.

This session marks the first stage of a capacity-building programme, which will continue in October with a face-to-face training course in Accra, Ghana. The programme covers, in particular, digital and financial literacy, risk management, project financing and the development of business plans.

In his opening address at the training session, the Director of the ECOWAS Centre for Youth and Sports Development, H.E. Francis Chuks NJOAGUANI, reminded the young entrepreneurs that potential without skills remains merely a promise, but that potential combined with skills, discipline and opportunities becomes an unbeatable force. Noting that young people represent this unbeatable force, he urged them to make the most of this experience, to learn, to innovate, to create, but above all to turn their knowledge into action.

Through the COYWA programme, ECOWAS and its partners aim to help strengthen young people’s entrepreneurial skills, promote innovation and develop mentoring and support mechanisms, with a view to fostering the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs capable of contributing to the economic and social development of West Africa.