SLIEPA CEO Appointed as the Chairman of Finance and Resource Mobilization Committee for ECOWAS TPO Network

The Trade Promotion Organisation (TPO) Network has appointed Mr. Sheku Lexmond Koroma, the Chief Executive Officer of the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA), as the Chairman of Finance and Resource Mobilization Committee for TPOs in West Africa; his appointment was made in July 2021, during the network’s first General Assembly in Abuja, Nigeria.

The TPO Network is a conglomeration of Trade Promotion Organisations among the ECOWAS Member States that has been formed within the framework of West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) to play a major role in strengthening economic and commercial cooperation and fostering more dynamic cooperation among ECOWAS Member States and with all trade partners around the world.

According to Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, the President of the ECOWAS TPO Network, in his opening remarks stated that, inter Africa export accounts for only 16% of Africa global export and more specifically intra ECOWAS export accounts for a small fraction of ECOWAS global exports. He said that, more must be done to increase the volume of trade within the ECOWAS Region and 

between ECOWAS and the rest of Africa, therefore he said that, the establishment of the TPO Network is a step in the right direction to foster better trade through cooperation among member states.

The appointment of Mr. Koroma as the Chairman of Finance and Resource Mobilization Committee, was in correlation with his influential role to the formation of the network since inception, thus adequately representing Sierra Leone through relevant and progressive contributions.

Upon appointment, he immediately started his duty by encouraging ECOWAS to support TPOs to execute their functions, giving that they are facing challenges at different levels. He advised all member states to work closely to foster cooperation in order to develop prospective ECOWAS economies.

The establishment of the TPO Network was as a result of the support provided by The ECOWAS Commission and the International Trade Centre (ITC), within the framework of West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) funded by the European Union (EU).

The overall objective of the WACOMP is “to strengthen the competitiveness of West Africa through an enhanced level of production, transformation and export capacities of the private sectors in line with the regional and national industrial and SME strategies”.