The Resident Representative of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ghana, Ambassador Mohammed Lawan Gana, has said the bloc is shifting its focus from being a union of states into a people-centred community.

According to him, the strategic transition is meant to move from a state-centred model to one that prioritises the welfare of citizens.

“The focus now is transitioning from an ECOWAS of states to an ECOWAS of the people,” he said in Accra on Tuesday, September 30, at the closing ceremony of a two-day training workshop for journalists on information integrity.

He explained that the new approach places people at the centre of the bloc’s development vision, with emphasis on peace, security, economic growth, regional integration, and social inclusion.

“So if the people are central to ECOWAS, then what will benefit them? Peace and security, economic development, integration, and social inclusion,” he noted.

By shifting its focus, ECOWAS aims to deliver tangible benefits to West Africans beyond state-level agreements and political negotiations. “So now, for example, I am from Nigeria; I cannot see someone from Niger and not care about him—and vice versa.”

This policy shift signals ECOWAS’s intention to ground its agenda in the lived realities of its people, fostering stronger solidarity, building resilience, and sustaining long-term development across West Africa.