Omar Touray, president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, said only six of the 15 member states had the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC).
The commission’s president named the member states as Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Benin, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone.
Mr Touray said this while presenting his address on the implementation status of the community work programmes at the ongoing first ordinary session of the ECOWAS parliament in Abuja on Wednesday.
“ECOWAS is introducing innovative measures to facilitate free movement across the sub-region. We are working on introducing an ECOWAS Visa, ECOVISA, like that of Schengen VISA,” stated Mr Touray.
In a presentation on the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, the commission’s president said enforcement of the court’s decisions remained a challenge.
“Records at the court show that there are a total of 106 judgments that have not been enforced by member states and another 11 by ECOWAS institutions,” he explained.
Moreso, he urged parliamentarians to facilitate the challenges militating against enforcing the court’s decisions.
“Even though the court is engaged with member states to resolve the challenges militating against the enforcement of its decisions, this is hopefully an area that the parliament can help in facilitating the resolution of the challenges,” he stated.
Mr Touray lauded the role of the court as a community institution. He said this was particularly an important force for promoting human rights, regional stability, and peace and security.
“Enforcement of its decisions is a critical component in determining its efficiency,” Mr Touray noted.
He said as of March 24, 641 cases had been filed at the court since 2003, of which 347 judgments and 135 rulings had been delivered.
The bloc first announced the biometric ID card programme in 2016 after leaders within the sub-region at the ECOWAS proposed to replace residence permits with biometric identification cards.
In 2019, Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the production of the identity card to replace the ECOWAS certificate by January 2020.
