About 1,000 industrial enterprise are meant to benefit from the programme, which is aimed at boosting industrial production, promoting investment, employment and improved competitiveness of the economies at the sub-regional level as well as the integration and diversification of UEMOA enterprises.

It revolves around the strengthening of sub-regional and national institutional capacities, and providing support to the design and funding mechanisms.

Estimated to cost about 202 billion francs CFA, the project will be funded by the private sector, the financial institutions and state authorities.

Speaking during the launch ceremony, the UEMOA commissioner in charge of enterprises, telecommunications and energy development, Guy Amédé Ajanohoun, said the common industrial policy of UEMOA member countries is aimed at turning the zone into a "significant player in the globalisation process within the framework of sustainable development".

"This ambition makes it incumbent upon us to give enterprise the means of producing at competitive costs good and services whose quality should meet international standards," he said.

He affirmed that out of 2,500 industrial enterprise identified in UEMOA countries, hardly 10 percent of them will benefit from a recognition of quality of their products in regard to base standards.

Established on 10 January 1994 in Dakar, Senegal, UEMOA brings together Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.