In 2017, through the Regulation C/REG.17/12/13 adopted in 2013, the ECOWAS Commission set up the ECOWAS Quality Award, with the aim to reward the best organizations in the region for their efforts to improve the quality of products and services. 
For the Second edition, 24 companies from 13 ECOWAS Member States applied for 1 Excellence and 4 Special Awards.
With funding from the European Union and on behalf of ECOWAS, UNIDO mobilised a pool of 18 auditors (15 national 3 regional) to evaluate them. 
The Excellence Award was won by Nestlé Ghana (big company), Cabinet Audit Expertise Comptable - AEC, Togo (medium company) and Ecole supérieure des affaires – ESA, Togo (small company)
The 4 special awards went to the following small, medium and large companies respectively:                                                                                                     - LEADERSHIP: Laboratoire du Centre Médical Sans Frontières (Côte d'Ivoire), Tropical Cable and Conductor (Ghana), Niger Dock (Nigeria); 
- PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: Medicines Control Agency (The Gambia), Zaika Foods (Nigeria), SOCOCIM (Senegal);
 - RESOURCE MANAGEMENT : Best Experts Conseils (Benin), Inno Faso (Burkina Faso), Société de transformation alimentaire (Niger);
 - ORIENTATION OF INTERESTED PARTIES: Sonia (Niger), PROSLAB (Mali), Coris Bank (Burkina Faso)

Honorary awards were granted to personalities or institutions that have contributed to the development and promotion of quality in the ECOWAS region through their actions: Amb. Kalilou Traoré, Dr Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, the European Union, UEMOA Commission and the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON).
 
The event held in the presence of stakeholders UNIDO, European Union, ECOWAS through a ceremony in hybrid format: face-to-face and online, under the chairmanship of the ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Mrs. Massandjé TOURE- LITSE.

The WACOMP is funded under the 11th European Development Fund and this programmatic initiative between the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, and the European Union with the support of the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union Commission (UEMOA) includes 1 Regional Component and 16 Country Components. 

Its overall objective is to strengthen the competitiveness of West Africa and improve the integration of countries into the regional and international trading system.