JAK hosts participants to ECOWAS Students Summit

President John Agyekum Kufuor, Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) requested that decisions taken at the premier ECOWAS Students Summit, should be presented to all Heads of State and Governments within the Sub-Region.

He said this would offer participants, the chance to make inputs for the formulation of policies to unite the Sub-Region.

President Kufuor made the appeal when he hosted the participants to a cocktail at the Castle, Osu on Saturday.

Seventy participants, 15 of them from seven other African countries attended the four-day Summit, under the theme "Students for Regional Integration".

The countries were Senegal, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Benin and Kenya. Nigeria would host the next annual Summit.

Mr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), expressed appreciation to the government and the ECOWAS Secretariat for helping in organising a successful summit.

"We appreciate the efforts of the two institutions to assist us to contribute to the process of regional integration. We need to break the borders and have a united continent," he said.

Mr Kingsley Ohene Amoako, International Relations Secretary of NUGS and Co-ordinator of the Summit, told newsmen that the meeting formed part of NUGS's vision for the process of regional integration.

He explained that various attempts had been made for regional integration without the involvement of the youth, therefore, contacts were made with other students bodies in tertiary institutions in the Sub-Region to organize the Summit.

Mr Amoako said it was being envisaged that a permanent secretariat of the Summit would be established to co-ordinate activities of the process from the grassroots.

Four main topics discussed at the Summit, were Conflict management and resolution, funding of education in the Sub-Region, New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and HIV/AIDS.