Decentralization in Niger: The Head of State meets the actors to boost the process

The President of the Republic, Head of State had a working meeting on Friday March 24 with the national actors and the technical and financial partners of decentralization in Niger. The meeting around the President of the Republic was held in the presence of the Minister of the Interior and Decentralization and brought together essentially the members of the Association of Municipalities of Niger AMN, the Association of Cities of Niger and the main partners who support Niger in its march towards full decentralization. In view of the importance, the Head of State and his hosts spent around two hours of discussions to dissect the process in order to better identify the problems and their causes with a view to providing appropriate solutions. On leaving their working meeting with the head of administration, the president of the Association of Regions of Niger, Mr. Mohamed Anako stressed that Niger’s decentralization is progressing slowly and that by receiving national and international actors , the Head of State wanted to hear for himself the problems of the actors, all the pitfalls that stand in the way of decentralization. Mohamed Anako indicated that the President of the Republic listened to them for a long time and attentively to summarize the diagnosis of decentralization which was made during a workshop held in Agadez some time ago. Financial decentralization played an important part in the exchanges with the Head of State, suggested the President of ARENI who also indicated that a government seminar is already planned to create synergy between the different ministries concerned. The President of the Association of Municipalities of Niger, Mr. Abdou Ouhou Dodo, said that the Head of State, who knows the issue well for having been Minister of the Interior, announced to them that a framework will be created where all the difficulties will be put on the table and discussed in particular on the financial decentralization which was the strong point of the meeting. Mr. Abdou Ouhou Dodo indicated that the President of the Republic is committed to supporting local authorities in their efforts to improve their resources in accordance with WAEMU community provisions.
Zabeirou Moussa

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