Category: Africa

Source: APO – Report:

CEM Africa 2026 will return to the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town from 18–20 August, bringing together senior customer experience, marketing, digital, customer service, technology and transformation leaders for the 14th edition of Africa’s leading customer experience summit.

With organisations across the continent under growing pressure to improve customer outcomes while navigating AI adoption, automation, rising expectations, fragmented journeys and commercial scrutiny, the 2026 programme has been built around a central question: how can businesses use technology to improve customer experience at scale without losing trust, relevance or the human connection?

Across three days, CEM Africa will combine strategic conference discussions, hands-on workshops, technology demonstrations, an exhibition, networking activations and peer-to-peer exchange, giving delegates the opportunity to move from big-picture industry questions to practical frameworks they can apply inside their organisations.

A speaker line-up rooted in real CX leadership

The 2026 speaker faculty brings together leaders working directly across customer experience, marketing, digital transformation, customer service, commerce, technology and organisational change.

Among those joining CEM Africa 2026 are:

• Bruce Whitfield, business journalist and best-selling author

• Khensani Nobanda, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Nedbank

• Francois Retief, Head of Customer Experience, FNB

• Martin Urrutia, global toy industry leader

• Marnitz Van Heerden, Head of Customer Experience, Discovery Limited

• Grace Brown, Head of Customer Experience and Client Services, JSE

• Khwaṱhelani Tshikovhi, Head: Santam Experience and Client Care, Santam Insurance

• Shaun Edmeston, Director of Customer Experience, Absa Bank Mauritius

• Job Thomas, Chief Customer Officer, WooCommerce

• Richie Sobayeni, Group Head of Customer Experience Design, Equity Group Holdings

• Julia Ahlfeldt, Customer Experience Strategist and Business Advisor

• Rashid Toefy, Deputy Director-General, Department of Economic Development and Tourism

• Katie Stabler, Founder and Director, CULTIVATE Customer Experience by Design

• Charlie Stewart, CEO, Rogerwilco

• Omowunmi Akingbohungbe, Executive Director, WIMBIZ

• Wavi Mungala, Board Director, Institute of CX – Kenya

The wider faculty spans financial services, retail, technology, insurance, e-commerce, public sector, consulting and customer operations, reflecting the increasingly cross-functional nature of customer experience.

From AI experimentation to measurable outcomes

Artificial intelligence will be one of the defining conversations at CEM Africa 2026, but the programme moves beyond broad speculation about AI to focus on where organisations are seeing – or still struggling to achieve – real operational and commercial value.

Day One will examine how African organisations can move from AI pilots to production, including governance, data readiness, agent co-pilots, voice AI, speech analytics, conversational AI and AI-driven personalisation.

The agenda also tackles the questions surrounding responsible adoption. Sessions will examine AI governance and ethics, privacy, POPIA, customer consent and the challenge of automating at scale without damaging trust.

A dedicated discussion, “Will AI Make Your Brand More Trustworthy?”, will explore whether increased automation strengthens customer confidence or risks undermining it, before the day closes its content programme with the audience-led town hall “Will Humans Still Matter in a World of AI-Driven Customer Experience?”

Data, insight and the business case for CX

For leaders under pressure to demonstrate the commercial return on customer experience investment, CEM Africa will put measurement firmly on the agenda.

Workshops will address customer data quality, real-time insight, first-party data strategy, predictive analytics and Voice of Customer, alongside practical sessions on building an end-to-end CX scorecard, customer lifetime value and mapping journey costs.

Delegates will also be able to explore how to prove CX ROI to executive teams, connecting customer experience activity to revenue uplift, churn reduction, operational efficiency and cost-to-serve.

The emphasis throughout is on turning customer insight into decisions and measurable business outcomes rather than collecting more data without action.

Designing customer journeys that work in African markets

The programme will also address the practical realities of customer engagement across diverse African markets.

Topics include omnichannel journey design, mobile-first experiences, WhatsApp as a service channel, self-service, proactive CX and reducing friction across high-volume journeys such as onboarding, billing, claims and fulfilment.

Sessions will examine how organisations can create accessible experiences for customers with different levels of digital literacy, connectivity and channel preference, while maintaining consistency between physical, digital and human-assisted interactions.

African market realities also feature in discussions on sentiment analysis, conversational AI, language, code-switching and customer behaviour.

The people behind customer experience

Technology is only one side of the CX equation.

CEM Africa 2026 will look closely at employee experience, organisational culture and the changing capabilities required of customer-facing teams.

Sessions will cover customer-centric culture, employee resilience, burnout, hybrid CX teams, human-centred service, AI upskilling, cross-functional collaboration and change management.

The programme will also explore the relationship between employee experience and customer outcomes, recognising that organisations cannot sustainably improve CX without equipping and engaging the people responsible for delivering it.

What the three days will look like

Tuesday, 18 August – Day Zero

CEM Africa begins with an afternoon dedicated to registration, community engagement and relationship-building ahead of the main conference programme.

Delegates can expect networking activities and activations, including tastings, community conversations, the CEM Networking Padel Tournament and sponsored welcome drinks.

The format is designed to give speakers, delegates, partners and industry leaders an opportunity to begin making connections before the formal summit gets underway.

Wednesday, 19 August – Day One

Day One opens with a strong focus on trust, relevance and measurable customer experience outcomes.

The main stage begins with Deshnie Govender’s opening keynote, “The Culture-Led Customer: The Emerging Markets Playbook for Building Trust, Relevance and Loyalty”, followed by sessions examining the future of AI-powered customer experience, journey-led CX orchestration and business journalist and best-selling author Bruce Whitfield’s keynote, “The Trust Advantage”, exploring how trust can reduce friction and unlock better business results.

From late morning, the programme moves into a series of parallel workshops and panels built around some of the most pressing issues facing CX leaders today.

The first sessions explore building trust in the AI era, with discussions on whether AI investments are delivering measurable business outcomes, the changing role of the CX leader, enterprise AI agents, frictionless customer journeys and lessons from CEM Africa Awards-winning teams.

The afternoon broadens the conversation into customer intelligence, Voice of Customer, Agentic AI, digital trust and human reassurance, alongside a dedicated discussion on how African contact centres and BPO operators are positioning themselves to compete globally.

Later sessions place the human experience firmly back at the centre of CX. Leaders will explore employee wellbeing, emotionally intelligent journey design, empathy in an AI-enabled environment, customer-centric culture and how to lead CX teams through continuous change.

The final workshop block tackles the commercial realities of CX, including moving from NPS to P&L, improving checkout conversion, connecting customer, employee and digital experience, driving loyalty through hyper-personalised research and the realities of stepping into senior CX leadership.

Day One closes with Matchmaking and Happy Hour, followed by the CEM Engage Party, creating further opportunities for delegates, speakers, partners and solution providers to continue conversations and build meaningful industry relationships.

Thursday, 20 August – Day Two

Day Two turns the focus towards human impact, business value and the future direction of customer experience in Africa.

The main stage opens with Zahirah Variawa’s motivational keynote, “The Moments People Remember: Why the Experiences We Create Matter More Than We Think”, followed by Rashid Toefy on designing better citizen experiences and building trust through public services.

A QuestionPro and Metropolitan fireside chat explores the use of AI within Voice of Customer programmes, while Katie Stabler and Debi Potgieter’s “What the Fluff?” challenges the industry to examine whether CX initiatives have genuine substance when put under pressure.

The morning also features the CEM 2026 Advisory Board Panel, bringing together leaders from across Africa to examine the future of CX through the lenses of trust, technology, business value and human connection, before Martin Urrutia, Head of Global Retail Experience at The LEGO Group, takes to the stage for the keynote “Experience Is the Brand.”

The afternoon workshop programme moves from strategy into execution.

Sessions will explore AI-powered WhatsApp journeys, voice AI in the South African market, the point at which brand promises break down, self-improving human and AI service models and how CX leaders can prove ROI in language that resonates in the boardroom.

The final workshop block looks further ahead. Delegates can explore CX designed for measurable ROI, the Future African Customer 2030, organisational trust, scalable experience design, the risks of poor AI, emerging CX research and Human First experience design.

The programme then closes with WiN CX Africa: Women Shaping Excellence in Every Experience, bringing together female leaders to explore how cultures of safety, trust and inclusion shape stronger customer and employee experiences.

Across both days, the programme reflects the central theme of CEM Africa 2026: Trust, Technology and the Human Future of CX in Africa, with a clear emphasis on moving beyond theory towards customer experience strategies that create stronger relationships, better operational outcomes and measurable business value.

More than a conference programme

Alongside the conference and workshops, attendees will have access to the CEM Africa exhibition, Expo Spotlight Stages, technology demonstrations, networking functions and opportunities to engage directly with CX solution providers and peers facing similar transformation challenges.

For senior leaders, the value lies not simply in hearing what is changing, but in comparing approaches with peers, interrogating technology choices, finding practical solutions and building relationships across Africa’s customer experience community.

CEM Africa’s broader 2026 positioning – “Excellence in Every Experience: Shaping the Future of Customer Engagement Across Africa” – reflects an industry that is increasingly being asked to connect customer experience directly to business growth, loyalty, trust and resilience.

With the event now days away, CEM Africa 2026 offers organisations a timely opportunity to understand where customer experience is heading next — and what leaders need to do now to stay relevant.

CEM Africa 2026 takes place from 18–20 August 2026 at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.

For the latest programme, speaker line-up and delegate availability, visit https://apo-opa.co/4zgt0bJ.

– on behalf of VUKA Group.

Additional links:
https://apo-opa.co/4bQHxAO
https://apo-opa.co/4wSEIrk

Media enquiries:
Steven Dennett
Marketing Manager VUKA Group / CEM Africa
Steven.dennett@WeAreVUKA.com
CEMAfricaSummit.com

About CEM Africa:
CEM Africa is Africa’s leading customer experience summit and a platform for senior leaders, practitioners, innovators and solution providers shaping the future of customer engagement across the continent.

Created by VUKA Group, CEM Africa brings together practical insight, strategic collaboration, technology, peer learning and meaningful business connections to help organisations build stronger, more relevant and more commercially effective customer experiences.

Source: APO – Report:

• 20 Entrepreneurs selected from an expanded Top 100 cohort
• Semi-Finalists will pitch before business, investment and entrepreneurial leaders
• ABH returns to the city that hosted its inaugural Semi-Final

The Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) (https://AfricaBusinessHeroes.org) Prize Competition, a philanthropic initiative of Alibaba Philanthropy, today announced the 20 entrepreneurs who will advance to its 2026 Semi-Final, taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21–22 August.

The Top 20 were selected from an expanded Top 100 cohort drawn from more than 24,000 applications across all 54 African countries. Candidates advanced through three-person judging-panel interviews that assessed leadership, innovation, impact, scalability and commercial strength. The process was reinforced by on-the-ground visits to every company advancing to the Semi-Final and comprehensive due diligence conducted by PlusVC, allowing ABH to test the written applications against the businesses, teams and communities behind them. The selected 20 entrepreneurs will now compete for 10 places in the ABH semi-final.

Together, the ABH 2026 Top 20 cohort represents 12 African countries and 11 sectors, with 8 women entrepreneurs accounting for 40% of the cohort. Collectively, their businesses generated approximately US$85 million in 2025 and span diverse sectors including agriculture and agritech, healthcare, manufacturing, climate technology, financial services, education, energy, and technology.

Site visits reveal the people and purpose behind the businesses

Site visits are central to ABH’s approach because they reveal what even a strong application or pitch can miss: whether a founder has earned trust, whether a team can execute under pressure, and whether demand is real. That context matters in African markets, where sophisticated businesses are often underestimated because their strengths are not always visible through conventional investment filters. By combining interviews and due diligence with on-the-ground observation, ABH does more than identify compelling storytellers; it surfaces entrepreneurs with the operational depth, community legitimacy and resilience to build lasting enterprises. The platform then helps close the gap between proven local capability and the capital, networks and visibility required to scale it.

Building global connections through Hangzhou, China

The second edition of ABH’s Hangzhou learning and market-access trip will take place in China from 14–18 September, extending the program’s support well beyond the competition stage. Approximately 40 participants from more than 10 African countries are expected to join, including primarily 2024 and 2025 Top 10 Heroes, alongside other alumni, selected entrepreneurs, judges and participants from the Alibaba Digital Lion program. The trip reflects a central part of ABH’s value: giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to step outside their immediate operating environments, learn from a leading technology and commerce ecosystem, exchange ideas with peers and return home with new inspiration, practical knowledge and a broader sense of what their businesses can become.

A return to Nairobi

The 2026 Semi-Final marks ABH’s return to Nairobi, the city that hosted the program’s very first Semi-Final. The return carries both symbolic and practical significance. Nairobi has developed into one of Africa’s most dynamic centers for technology, entrepreneurship and investment, bringing together ambitious founders, established businesses, universities, innovation hubs, development institutions and a growing community of local and international investors.

This year’s event will welcome a larger investor audience, giving participating entrepreneurs more opportunities to engage directly with funders and strategic partners from across Africa and beyond. Their presence reflects a broader ambition for the Semi-Final: to serve not only as a competition, but also as a marketplace for ideas, relationships and capital through which investable African businesses can be discovered, understood and supported.

Join Africa’s leading entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem builders in Nairobi for two days of live pitches, insights and connection. Register to attend the 2026 ABH Semi-Final (https://apo-opa.co/4gu8hJY).

Experienced judges bring investor, operator and alumni perspectives

The Top 20 will present before a distinguished judging panel:

• Kome Oruade-Etim, Global Program Manager for Acumen Angels and former West Africa Lead for Acumen Academy, brings extensive experience supporting purpose-driven leaders and early-stage enterprises addressing complex social challenges.
• Wandia Gichuru, Co-founder and CEO of Vivo Fashion Group, brings the perspective of an entrepreneur who has built and scaled one of East Africa’s most recognizable fashion businesses.
• Thomas Njeru, Co-founder and CEO of Pula Advisors and a 2023 ABH Top Three finalist, returns as a judge. Having stood on the ABH stage as a finalist, he understands the entrepreneurial journey, the pressure of the competition, and the qualities required to translate a compelling vision into a scalable enterprise.
• Jason Pau, Executive Director (International) at the Jack Ma Foundation, who co-founded and has actively led the ABH program for the last 7 years.

Meet the 2026 Top 20 Heroes

1. Farah Emara — FreshSource (Egypt) — AgriTech
2. Nour El-Assal — Tagaddod (Egypt) — Renewable Energy
3. Salma Tammam — REME-D (Egypt) — Healthcare
4. Ahmed Shaaban — Simplex (Egypt) — Manufacturing
5. Affiong Williams — Reelfruit (Nigeria) — Manufacturing
6. Kelvin Umechukwu — Bumpa) (Nigeria) — Enterprise / SaaS
7. Ikechukwu Anoke — Zuri Health Ltd (Kenya) — HealthTech
8. Naom Monari — Bena Care Limited (Kenya) — HealthTech
9. Joseph Mungai — AceleAfrica Limited (Kenya) — Energy
10. Louisa Gathecha — Bottle Logistics East Africa Ltd (Kenya) — Industrial (ClimateTech)
11. Meriem Benabad — Z.6 or Z.SYS INC (Morocco) — Retail (FMCG) – Marketplace
12. Nidal Tafah — MIRRIAH (Morocco) — AgriTech
13. Samson Fentaye — Thur Biotech Manufacturing Plc (Ethiopia) — Agritech
14. Jess Roussos — BluLever Education Pty Ltd (South Africa) — EdTech
15. David Kamugundu — eFiche Ltd (Rwanda) — HealthTech
16. Joseph Paul — Dawa Mkononi (Tanzania) — HealthTech
17. Gildas Zodome — Bio Phyto (Benin) — Agritech
18. Appessika Adanin Laurent Koffi — Green Agro Valley (Côte d’Ivoire) — Agritech
19. Hagasata Rakotoson — Solidis S.A (Madagascar) — FinTech
20. Rodney Kofi Kyei — Crux Global Limited (Ghana) — Media and Entertainment

– on behalf of Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH).

Media resources and press kit:
2026 ABH Top 20 (https://apo-opa.co/4xE80tE)

For media inquiries:
pr@africabusinessheroes.org

About Africa’s Business Heroes:
The Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition identifies, supports and celebrates talented entrepreneurs from across Africa who are creating economic and social impact in their communities. The program provides grant funding, mentorship, training and opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect with business leaders and investors from Africa and around the world. Learn more at https://AfricaBusinessHeroes.org

About Alibaba Philanthropy:
​Alibaba Philanthropy is the social-impact arm of Alibaba Group and is committed to harnessing technology and partnerships for good. Its work spans rural revitalization, environmental protection, disaster relief and the empowerment of vulnerable communities. In Africa, Alibaba Philanthropy supports flagship initiatives including Africa’s Business Heroes, helping entrepreneurs build inclusive and sustainable growth across the continent.

Source: APO

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Nearly 39,000 children fled to the city of El Obeid in North Kordofan, Sudan, over the first six months of the year, escaping violence and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure that have uprooted families across the state, Save the Children said.

The new arrivals are now part of more than 605,000 people living in El Obeid town and Sheikan locality, who have come seeking safety but are facing new challenges in accessing health, water, education and protection services within the city [1].

Save the Children is reporting a significant increase in cases of child malnutrition in Sheikan locality, with nutrition centres seeing substantial increases in new inpatients.  In April 2026, Save the Children-supported health facilities in Sheikan locality treated 426 children for malnutrition, compared with 195 in March, marking a 118% month-on-month increase and a 75% rise from April 2025.

In June and July, Save the Children field reports further revealed severe food shortages and reduced food assistance in the two camps where the aid agency supports displaced families. While many families rely entirely on humanitarian aid, it remains far below the growing needs, forcing children to skip meals or go to sleep hungry. 

Water shortages in the city are also compounding the crisis, with Save the Children staff reporting some families spend nearly half of their day searching for water. The situation was particularly bad in June and July when drone strikes hit water infrastructure, causing panic and further exacerbating shortages. Where individual consumption has now been reduced to approximately 7 litres per person per day, less than half of the general minimum standard of 15 litres recommended by the World Health Organization during crises. 

Mohamed*, a father living with his family in a camp for displaced people in El Obeid, told Save the Children: 

“When we arrived in El Obeid, we had nothing except the clothes we were wearing. Finding food, water, and a safe place for our children was our biggest concern. Every day is a struggle, but we are trying to rebuild our lives.”

Amani*, Save the Children staff working in El Obeid said the scale of humanitarian need has grown significantly in recent months:

“Today, we are seeing substantially higher levels of need than we observed three months ago. The number of displaced families has increased, food and fuel prices have risen sharply, access to safe water has become more difficult, and health facilities are reporting higher numbers of children requiring treatment for malnutrition and illness.”

Francesco Lanino, Deputy Country Director for Save the Children in Sudan, said:   

“El Obeid is approaching a humanitarian breaking point. Tens of thousands of children have been forced from their homes by violence and attacks that continue to impact civilians and civilian infrastructure across North Kordofan. Families arriving in the city are seeking safety, but many are finding food shortages, limited access to clean water and health services already pushed to their limits.  

“Children are paying the highest price for this conflict. They are being displaced, going hungry, losing access to education, and living with constant fear and uncertainty. The international community must act urgently to protect civilians, ensure safe humanitarian access and provide the resources needed before this crisis deepens further.”

Across North Kordofan, attacks on civilian infrastructure – including fuel stations and depots, market areas, health facilities, and residential neighbourhoods – have disrupted access to essential services, destroyed livelihoods and forced growing numbers of families to flee in search of safety, placing further pressure on already overstretched resources in El Obeid. 

Save the Children continues to operate in and around El Obeid, providing health, nutrition, water, sanitation, education and child protection services despite growing access challenges.   

The aid agency is calling for the protection of civilians, ensuring safe and sustained humanitarian access, and increased humanitarian support to meet the growing needs of displaced children and families in El Obeid and across Sudan. Without urgent action, needs are expected to increase significantly in the coming weeks, placing thousands more at risk.  

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and provides programming for children and families affected by conflict, displacement, extreme poverty and hunger. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Save the Children.

Source: APO – Report:

Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Ambassador Barry Faure, held a bilateral meeting with his South African counterpart, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, H.E. Ronald Lamola, on the margin of the 46th SADC Ordinary Summit in Durban.

The meeting provided an opportunity for the two Ministers to reaffirm the longstanding friendship between Seychelles and South Africa, and to discuss avenues for deepening cooperation between the two countries on a number of bilateral matters.

Minister Faure thanked South Africa for its leadership of SADC and for the hospitality extended to the Seychelles delegation throughout the Summit. Minister Lamola, in turn, expressed appreciation for Seychelles’ consistent support to South African candidatures in multilateral organisations, describing the country as a reliable partner within the region and beyond.

Both Ministers underscored the importance of the bilateral relationship between Seychelles and South Africa, particularly in the economic sector, and welcomed the growing interest of South African investors in Seychelles. They also agreed on the importance of convening the 4th Session of the Seychelles-South Africa Joint Commission for Cooperation, set to take place in 2027.

On matters of diplomatic representation, Minister Lamola confirmed that South Africa’s newly appointed High Commissioner to Seychelles will soon travel to Victoria to present credentials. Minister Faure similarly announced the appointment of Seychelles’ High Commissioner to South Africa.

Paying tribute to outgoing High Commissioner H.E. Hlamalani Nelly Manzini, Minister Faure commended her active tenure, particularly her contribution to advancing the Maritime Corridor Strategy, and expressed hope that she would soon pay her farewell courtesy call.

The meeting closed with both Ministers reaffirming the strength of Seychelles-South Africa relations and their shared commitment to deepening cooperation across all areas of mutual interest.

– on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Republic of Seychelles.

Source: APO

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• “In West Africa, as in many other regions of the world, issues relating to substance abuse remain complex and constantly evolving.”

This was the observation made by the Commissioner for Human Development and Social Affairs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Prof. Fatou Sow Sarr, on Tuesday 11 August 2026, in Lagos, Nigeria, at the opening of the capacity building workshop organised by the Nigerian Network for Epidemiology on Drug Use (NENDU).

According to Ms Fatou Sow Sarr, represented by the Head of the Commission’s Drug Prevention and Control Division, Dr Daniel Amankwaah, this complex and ever changing nature requires continuous monitoring of emerging trends to enable the adoption of appropriate measures.

Dr Daniel Amankwaah called on ECOWAS Member States to establish a system to monitor the scale, characteristics and trends of drug supply and demand, as well as national and regional responses to the situation.

He also emphasised the need for coordinated collaboration between the health and law enforcement sectors, with a public health focused approach. This, he said, would enable the establishment of national mechanisms capable of both assessing local specificities and clearly defining the types of responses required to tackle the issue of drug use in a comprehensive manner, by addressing both supply and demand.

“To tackle the drug problem comprehensively, it is essential to have reliable and up to date data to guide evidence based policies and programmes; without this, our interventions risk remaining purely reactive rather than proactive,” said Dr Daniel Amankwaah.

He recalled the establishment, by the ECOWAS Commission in 2013, of the West African Network for Drug Use Epidemiology (WENDU). This network, he emphasised, serves as a regional mechanism for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on drug use and related issues in the member states of the regional organisation.

Alongside WENDU’s operations at regional level, it should be noted that each of these states has its own local drug use epidemiology network. In Nigeria, this is the Nigerian Network for Drug Use Epidemiology (NENDU), established to improve the collection, analysis and reporting of data.

This three (3) days workshop has been organised for NENDU focal points, professionals from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and other key stakeholders responsible for collecting data on drugs, representing all of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.

Its main objective is to strengthen the technical capacities of participants, in order to ensure they produce high quality reports on drug use; these reports support the development of evidence based policies and interventions for drug prevention and control in ECOWAS member states.

Between 2014 and 2024, the ECOWAS Commission published five WENDU reports, and the 2025 report  which has already been validated by the focal points of the regional organisation’s member states will be finalised shortly.

“The ECOWAS Commission attaches great importance to the reliability of drug data in the region; it will support its member states so that they can provide high quality data, which will form the basis of the annual regional report. The WENDU report is also published globally,” said Dr Daniel Amankwaah.

He reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to continuing to do everything in its power to help ECOWAS Member States fulfil their role effectively in the fight against the scourge of drugs. “By joining forces, we will succeed,” he concluded.

For her part, Dr Amina Z. Kazaure, Director of the Hospital Services Department at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, expressed her gratitude to the ECOWAS Commission for its ongoing partnership and support aimed at strengthening prevention, treatment and rehabilitation in relation to drug use in her country and across the rest of the ECOWAS region.

As for the Director of the Narcotics and Drug Abuse Division at the same ministry, Ms Henrietta Bakura-Onyeneke, she urged participants to identify common challenges relating to reporting and to jointly develop practical solutions and action plans to improve NENDU reporting.

“We must move beyond the mere collection of data, which is often seen as a routine reporting obligation, and recognise it as an essential public health function, facilitating the early identification of emerging trends, the prioritisation of resources and the development of evidence-based interventions,” she recommended.

It should be noted that during the workshop, participants watched a video on the social, health and economic consequences of drug use in the ECOWAS region.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).