The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), is officially launching the Regional Rice Resilient Value Chains Development Programme (REWARD) on November 11th, 2026, at the ECOWAS Commission Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, in a bid to accelerate food sovereignty and reduce West Africa’s dependence on rice imports.
Supported by the African Development Bank, REWARD is a flagship regional investment programme valued at approximately $650 million, covering all ECOWAS Member States and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), with the programme seeking to strengthen rice production and processing, improve value chain competitiveness, build resilience to climate and market shocks, and accelerate regional rice self-sufficiency. The high-level regional event will bring together political leaders, policymakers, development partners, technical institutions, research institutions and private sector stakeholders to advance a coordinated regional response to food insecurity.
Aligned with the 2023 Dakar 2 Summit Declaration, National Rice Development Strategies (NRDS), the Regional Rice Roadmap (2025–2035), and the National Rice Investment Action Plans (NRIAPs), the programme represents a major step towards strengthening regional rice production, ensuring food security, and reducing West Africa’s dependence on costly rice imports. The AfDB first announced the $650 million rice programme in 2023, targeting double cropping and yields on 750,000 hectares of irrigated land, with one million rice farmers set to benefit, 30 per cent of whom are women, and total paddy production expected to reach 10.5 million tons per year, or 53 million tons by the end of the five-year programme in 2028.
ECOWAS will lead Component 3 of the programme, focusing on regional and national policy and regulatory reforms, technical assistance, and strengthened regional coordination, with key priorities including harmonising rice-related policies, improving the regional regulatory environment for agricultural inputs, and establishing digital-based monitoring systems linked to the ECOWAS Rice Observatory (ERO). The ECOWAS envelope for the grant is valued at $12 million for a period of five years, with the regional body working closely with AfricaRice and other partners to support a more coherent policy environment and stronger mechanisms for monitoring progress and informing evidence-based decisions across Member States.
The first day of the event will feature the official launch ceremony, institutional commitment, presentations on the overall REWARD programme and ECOWAS-led Component 3, and a formal declaration of the programme’s regional implementation phase, with the ceremony underscoring the shared commitment of ECOWAS, the AfDB, Member States and development partners to transforming the regional rice sector. The second day, November 12th, will focus on technical coordination and implementation, including the first meeting of the REWARD Project Steering Committee for the ECOWAS-led component, providing a platform to review the implementation plan, clarify institutional responsibilities, strengthen coordination and reporting arrangements, and agree on immediate priorities and follow-up actions.
The launch is expected to strengthen political and institutional ownership, reinforce partnerships, and establish a common framework for translating regional commitments into measurable results, while also providing an opportunity to identify complementary financing and technical collaboration to accelerate implementation across participating countries. The programme represents an important step toward building a competitive West African rice economy that creates opportunities for farmers, processors, agribusinesses and young people while improving access to affordable, quality rice for the region’s growing population.
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