The Canadian government has donated 5.75 million dollars to the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for capacity building, the News Agency of Nigeria reported Monday.

The grant will help further consolidate the capacity-building gains of ECOWAS in discharging its responsibility as focal point of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) implementation in west Africa, the bloc's Executive Secretary Mohammed Ibn Chambas said at the occasion.

He said that the support from Canada and other development partners would go a long way to facilitate the NEPAD implementation process by providing the needed human resources.

In his remarks, David Angeli, the Canadian high commissioner to Nigeria, said that it was to support the implementation of ECOWAS institutional capacity building program.

"The initiative would strengthen institutional capacity, create an efficient financial system in addition to developing a result based management practice for ECOWAS," he added.

Source: Xinhua