He said its main mandate to support the economic and social development, encourage regional integration and international cooperation with emphasis on producing and sharing knowledge to support policy formulation and advocacy could fail on the altar of no media direction.

Speaking at a workshop for 30 selected journalists towards the formation of a Network of Economic Journalists for West Africa (NEJWA) from the 15 member-regional body of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr Sanga said maintaining a responsible and dynamic partnership with the media would become the swivel to generate the necessary visibility, acceptance and growth.

He said a better synergy outcomes are expected from this collaboration with a clear-cut mechanism for capacity building for NEJWA members on ECA priority areas in West Africa to actualize the structural transformation of the region’s economies for job and wealth creation.

Dr Sanga expressed optimism about the success of the networking and entreated the journalists to be committed and demonstrate brazen professionalism to stimulate the aspirations of the region’s development.

Mr Jimmy Ocitti, Director of Public Information and Knowledge Management Division, ECA Headquarters, said ECA has metamorphosed overtime to become the premier think-tank entity for Africa, detaching itself from the UN bureaucracy wing and working robustly under the tag-line of “Africa first.”

He said information was therefore crucial for branding purposes and communication strategy development and the partnership with the NEJWA would leverage information between ECA and their publics.

“The principle on which the communication strategy will be notched will feature strong messages, including campaign approach communication, embedded with knowledge delivery and knowledge generation, a catalyst for media relationship in the view to contextualise news content.”

Mr Ocitti said “if you control data, you control the narrative and if you control the narrative, you control data.”

Mr Amadou Diouf, Economic Affairs Officer, ECA SRO/WA, said ECA strives on the integrity and authenticity of information it releases to its partners and the public and it has a strategic framework for national statistical development in member states towards building a flagship data system, which could be vouched for internationally.

He announced that Cape Verde sought technical advice from ECA in the deployment of technological innovation in transforming its birth and death registry, deducing about 90 percent optimum success in its national civic registration exercise, which Niger is seeking about $ 65 million to replicate.

“This exercise will boost the national development planning and statistical systems as well as identification registration regimes for rapid socio-economic growth."

Mr Ochozias Gbaguidi, Chief Sub-Regional Initiative Officer said regional initiatives and coordination of mechanisms would provide the synergy for enhanced development including cost-effective use of resources to optimize for greater efficiency.

For these reasons, he said ECA was critically reviewing the impact of the admission of Morocco into ECOWAS in a research and the results would be ready soon to affect decision-making going forward.