This conference was attended by the Presidents of Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Upper Volta, and Senegal, the Prime Minister of the Gambia, the representative of the Chairman of the National Liberation Council of Ghana, and the representative of the Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria.

The initiative had been taken by the Heads of the Senegal River Basin States (Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal) following meetings held by them at Nouakchott in November 1965, and at Bamako two years later. They proposed that such a conference should be held at Monrovia in order to create a West African regional group, and requested President Tubman of Liberia to play host. The conference was organised in two stages: a ministerial preparatory meeting, from 17 to 21 April, and the session of the Heads of State and Government, from 22 to 24 April 1968.