Kocou Armand HOUANYE

Executive Secretary of Niger Basin Authority

Dear Members of the NBA Governing Bodies,

Dear Colleagues of the Executive Secretariat,

Dear NBA Partners,

I am delighted to announce that our shared institution, the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), despite the difficulties it faces and the major challenges it faces at several levels, remains a true driving force for equitable, integrated, and sustainable socioeconomic development throughout the national territories of its nine (9) Member States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad.

Indeed, the NBA was created in 1980, replacing the Niger River Commission established in 1964, with a view to promoting the integrated management and development of water resources in the Niger River Basin. It continues to operate confidently as an intergovernmental institution for regional cooperation and integration around its enormous water resource potential, requiring the implementation of significant structuring investments to significantly increase their current weak mobilization and development to boost industrial development and job creation, particularly for young people, economic growth, poverty reduction and the fight against climate change in the nine (9) riparian countries of the Niger Basin.

From my discussions with you, following my taking office as Executive Secretary of the ABN on July 24, 2025, I would like to reassure you that I am even more aware of the challenges we face at all levels. These include; (ii) improving the governance of ABN as well as its performance in the design and execution of its resilient development actions for the benefit of improving the conditions of the valiant populations living in the Niger Basin; (ii) strengthening skills in sufficient numbers and recognizing the merit of human capital, while establishing a friendly, modern and more motivating working environment with the construction of the new ABN headquarters; (iii) strengthening and diversifying the attractive services of the ABN with tangible and far-reaching positive impacts on improving the conditions of the valiant populations living in the Niger Basin; (iv) the reactivation of the Advisory Group of Technical and Financial Partners of the NBA by periodically involving them in the processes of prospective analyses and strategic reflections on the planning, programming and financing of the implementation of the NBA Development Action; (v) the improvement of the visibility of the NBA as well as communication on its Action at different levels on a regular basis; (vi) the progressive operationalization of the Regional Fund for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Niger Basin.

Dear colleagues of the NBA Executive Secretariat, meeting these challenges, which are certainly significant, is within our reach. This is thanks to our strong shared will and determination to achieve this goal by remaining committed to working collaboratively and with complementarity at all levels. I would also like to count on maintaining and strengthening our already good collaboration with the National Focal Structures and the National User Coordinations of the Niger Basin.

To encourage Member States, partners, and collaborators to take an interest in and provide greater support for the NBA's integrated and sustainable development actions in the Niger Basin, it is important to equip our institution with an ambitious and effectively implemented visibility and communication policy. With this in mind, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will be our preferred tools. Our efforts will initially focus on the judicious and optimal use of existing tools, particularly the institution's web portal. in order to facilitate, among other things, decision-making, collaboration for effective crisis management and the affirmation of our values ​​for better mobilization of stakeholders.

It is with this in mind that the study for the design and development of an integrated NBA institutional web portal was initiated within the framework of the PIDACC/NB, one of the important outcomes of our fruitful cooperation with the African Development Bank, which we thank.

The ceremony that brings us together today is the deployment of the new NBA web portal, the main product of this study. This ceremony, co-sponsored by Mr. Roger Baro, President of the NBA Council of Ministers, Minister of the Environment, Water, and Sanitation of Burkina Faso, and Colonel Abdoulaye Maizama, Minister of the Environment, Hydraulics, and Sanitation, Minister responsible for the NBA in Niger, has a dual significance: it is taking place at the dawn of the term of the new NBA Executive Secretary, Mr. K. Armand Houanye; and especially at a time when the NBA has committed to the adoption and implementation of a new Strategic Plan.

I wish success and prosperity to our joint institution and to all its stakeholders, actors, and development partners in the new era of revitalization and repositioning of the NBA within the institutional landscape of transboundary basin organizations in the West African and Sahel subregion.

May the Most Merciful, Allah Almighty God, continue to bestow His blessings and protection upon the Niger Basin, upon all of us and all our families.

Long live the Niger Basin Authority!

Long live international cooperation!