What integration could mean for social and economic growth in the ECOWAS region
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since its establishment on May 28, 1975 has gone through so many phases in its quest to attain regional integration.
The region’s population of about 335 million, is a viable market and potential base for an industrial revolution, because that population represents a third of the population of sub-Sahara Africa.
But unfortunately, what has been considered at one point as a silver bullet to trigger the desired industrial transformation that could essentially impact social and economic development within the region seem elusive – the one most important catalyst for transforming the region – integration.
The 15-member states – comprising the Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo have managed over the years to achieve some milestones towards full integration – chief among them the implementation of the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment.
Since 2015 ECOWAS citizens from one country can move into another and settle – before 2015, citizens of member-states can only stay for 90 days, but they can now move into another country and establish themselves.
To facilitate the free movement of people, ECOWAS members have agreed on a common biometric card for citizens of member-countries, so far Senegal has started implementing the process.
While the benefits for integration are very well known to member-countries, they seem to put country interest ahead of the regional interest, effectively stalling progress for the greater benefit of all. As a result, ECOWAS has not been able to catch up with the level of integration attained by the Eastern Africa Bloc.
The Index on the systematic measurement of regional integration by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union Commission (AUC), which is the first, shows that ECOWAS has a lot more to do to catch up with the Eastern Bloc.
In the Index, published in April 2016, ECOWAS is ranked third in regional integration out of eight regional economic communities assessed by the Africa Regional Integration Index – Africa’s first effort to measure progress on regional integration.
On a scale of 0 to 1, ECOWAS came third with a score of 0.509, behind the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which scored 0.531, and the East African Community (EAC) which came first with a score of 0.540.
The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) came fourth with 0.459, followed by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the horn of Africa and its western area, with 0.457; and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in sixth, scoring 0.454.
The research also examined integration in two wider regional blocs: the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which cuts across North-Eastern, East, Central and Southern Africa, and includes some member countries of the UMA, IGAD, ECCAS and SADC; and the Community of Sahel Saharan States (CEN-SAD) made up of ECOWAS and some North, Central and East African states (from UMA, ECCAS and IGAD). COMESA scored 0.415 and CEN-SAD, 0.395.
In the Index, regional integration was measured using 16 indicators in five dimensions: trade integration, productive integration, free movement of people, financial and macroeconomic integration, and regional infrastructure.
The ECOWAS regional economic community had the highest score in the free movement of people (0.800) and in financial and macroeconomic integration (0.611) but fared poorly in the others, ranking 7th in trade integration (0.442), regional infrastructure (0.442), and productive integration (0.265).
The Director of Trade at the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Gbenga Obideyi once said, the lack of political will is impeding regional integration progress in ECOWAS. He pointed out that while African leaders do not shy away from putting pen to paper on regional integration interventions, reluctance sets in when it is time for implementation and technocrats appear to be inefficient in their work.
Trade facilitation, which has been noted as an enabler for social and economic growth hasn’t been handled efficiently enough in the region.
For instance, it has been noted that compared to other regional blocs, ECOWAS, has recorded persistent low levels, from 10 to 14 per cent intra-regional trade since its inception while the European Union, North America Free Trade Agreement and the South American economic organisation; Mercosur, recorded intra-regional trade from 65-70 per cent.
While ECOWAS agreed to implement the Common External Tariff in January 2015, only nine countries in the region have adopted it, the other six are still in the process.
ECOWAS member-states with extractive industries are signatories to the African Mining Vision that was adopted by the African Union in 2012, and yet, so far it is not clear how many of the member states within the region are adopting the Vision.
One area though that the region has done a lot, is in the area of security. Following the Liberia and Sierra Leone civil wars in the 1980s and 1990s, ECOWAS was compelled to intervene by setting up the regional intervention force, the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). The formation of the force and its management, which effectively ended the wars, enabled ECOWAS to build expertise in the area of security and peacekeeping.
ECOWAS, however, is faced with cross-border crimes and piracy, and the Bloc has established the ECOWAS Integrated Maritime Strategy (EIMS), to respond to security threats and other maritime issues along the territorial waters of member-countries, the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre for Zone “E” in Cotonou, Benin, will address threats along the territorial waters of Togo, Niger, Benin and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea.
Clearly, the benefits of integration to member-countries altogether outweigh national interests, considering the fact that as countries have different levels of economic growth, markets and advancement in some sectors of their economies, other countries lagging in these areas can benefit from the expertise of the others.
The GDP of the region can grow above the current approximately $345 billion, when integration is fully implemented.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
Email: [email protected]
Copyright © 2016 by Creative Imaginations Publicity
All rights reserved. This article or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in reviews.