ECOWAS Ministers want strong support for West Africa Industrial Policy

Ministers in charge of Industry in the ECOWAS region ended a one-day Symposium in Lome, Togo, March 30, 2012, by launching a special appeal to regional financial banks and institutions, technical and financial partners, the private sector and Member States, to support the speedy implementation of the West Africa Industrial Policy (WACIP) programmes.

The Ministers, who also adopted the Report of a two-day Experts’ meeting that followed the Ministerial session, equally mandated the ECOWAS Commission to organize a donors’ Roundtable for WACIP in 2012, according to a statement issued by the West African regional bloc.

The ministerial session also discussed technical assistance of UNIDO and mobilisation of donors for the financing of WACIP “with ten accompanying core programmes and outlining key objectives including diversifying and broadening the region’s industrial production base”.

This, the statement said “is by progressively raising local raw material processing rate from 15-20% to over 30% by 2030 through support for the creation of new industrial production capacity and increasing the manufacturing industries’ contribution to the regional GDP currently at an average of 6-7% to an average of over 20%”.

The other objectives of the meeting included increasing intra-Community trade in West Africa from less than 12% to 40% by 2030 with a 50% share of the region’s trade in manufacturing goods particularly in the area of energy as well as increasing the volume of exports of goods manufactured in the region to the global market from the current 0.1% to at least 1% by 2030.

By Ekow Quandzie