Cape Verde, a member state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with a population of about 555,988, has established a diplomatic mission in Nigeria to strengthen diplomatic ties with the member states of ECOWAS.

The Prime Minister of the West African state, Dr. Ulisses Silva disclosed this in Abuja during a visit to the ECOWAS Commission, as part of activities marking his working visit to Nigeria.

He explained that the purpose of the mission “is to inaugurate the new embassy of Cape Verde in Nigeria; present the first resident ambassador who will be representing Cape Verde in Nigeria and ECOWAS Commission while and strengthen the relationship of Cape Verde with Nigeria, the ECOWAS Commission and all member states in the organisation.”

At the meeting with the Commissioners at the ECOWAS Commission, the prime minister said establishing an embassy would go a long way in strengthening relations of friendship and cooperation with Nigeria, the ECOWAS Commission and all member states of ECOWAS.

He said:

Cape Verde intends to be more dynamic in its participation in the sub-region and consequently boost its regional Integration. I am fully aware of what at this moment the region is going through. There remains a hard fight that still remains to be fought for the damages caused by the COVID-19, especially the actions of economic recovery.

He said:

The pandemic is still present and demands from all of us more cooperation, more solidarity and more concerted action. For Cape Verde, since its national independence, this is the greatest challenge to its economy.

In the process of regional integration, Cape Verde is faced with several constraints, such as insularity, its dispersion in islands that entails exorbitant costs of infrastructure and development, the demographic and territorial smallness, in addition to various other vulnerabilities that create asymmetries and imbalances that make the integration of Cape Verde extremely difficult. In fact, inequality does not integrate.

He lamented that the drama and cost of Cape Verde development, a country with 500,000 inhabitants is obliged to have nine ports, airports, among others because the populations are dispersed throughout the nine islands, and the government is obliged to multiply everything, including services, by the number of inhabited islands.

Welcoming the Prime Minister on behalf of the President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou and other commissioners, the Vice President Finda Koroma said the visit to the Commission showed the importance Cape Verde placed on its membership of the regional body.

Koroma used the opportunity

to congratulate Jose Maria Neves on his recent election as the President of the Republic of Cape Verde. We are impressed by Cape Verde’s exemplary democratic governance through the organisation of free and fair elections and the smooth transfer of power.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.