ECOWAS Chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor is expected to leave Accra today (Friday) for Niamey, Niger, to attend the two-day Fifth Session of the Conference of Heads of State of the Sahelo-Saharan States.

The Community of Sahelo-Sharan States (CEN-SAD) is an inter-governmental organisation with 16 African member countries that meet yearly.

Member states are Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, The Gambia, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.

Details of the meeting are not available.

CEN-SAD was established on February 4, 1998 at a conference held in Tripoli, Libya, and attended by the leaders and Heads of State of Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Niger and Sudan, the rest joined later during subsequent meetings.

The Community, which has been granted the status of a regional economic grouping by the African Union (AU), was established to satisfy the wish for economic, cultural, political and social integration in accordance with the Charter of the UN, AU and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The main objective of the Community is the establishment of an overall economic union based on the implementation of a strategy by means of development plans that are complementary to the national development plans of member states.

These include investment in the agricultural, industrial, social and cultural fields and energy.

All obstacles to unity among member states are to be eliminated by facilitating the free movement of persons and capital and promoting the interests of the citizens of member states.

It would also ensure freedom of residence, employment, ownership and economic activity, ensuring free movement of goods and commodities of local origin as well as of services.