- A regional summit of 15 West African states in Accra this weekend agreed on a stronger economic integration in the region. This included the establishment of a free trade area by the end of 2007, new regional infrastructure and enhanced work to secure peace and stability. Observers a optimistic, given the new peace in Sierra Leone and Liberia and important reforms in Nigeria.
The Accra summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Saturday was attended by nine West African Presidents and other senior representatives from across the region, but also included World Bank President James Wolfensohn. Mr Wolfensohn said the World Bank was to back these regional integration plans with US$ 4.9 billion.
Leaders of the 15 still fragmented ECOWAS member states at the Accra summit called for three priority areas of activity. Most important was to push toward the establishment of a free trade area and customs union by the end of 2007. With West Africa's total of 245 million inhabitants, the new free trade zone could become an economy of scale.
To achieve real economic integration, an enhanced regional infrastructure also was set as a priority area. The ECOWAS leaders thus agreed to accelerate implementation of key infrastructure projects, including a West Africa Gas Pipeline and a West Africa Power Pool, along with a collaborative effort to clean the heavily-travelled Lagos - Abidjan road corridor of roadblocks.
Finally, regional peace and stability was defined as the most important factor to achieve enhanced international investments in the region, which has been hit by armed conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Nigeria and Mali only during the last ten years. The state leaders agreed it was time to adopt a regional approach to preventing conflict and assisting post-conflict recovery, under a newly established ECOWAS Peace Fund.
Summit host and Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor was pleased by the summit's outcome. He said that if the ECOWAS states consolidate recent moves toward peace and stability, and re-ignite the process of economic integration, "investors of the world will take a close look at the West Africa and will find a viable and attractive destination."
Also the World Bank leader was unusually optimistic about the outcome of the summit, saying it had been "very specific and encouraging." Mr Wolfensohn said the Bank has committed US $4.9 billion to the region's economic development. At the summit, he added that the World Bank is making significant changes to expand programs to support regional as well as country strategies.
The West Africa Gas Pipeline, the West Africa Power Pool and a move to develop a regional Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper were examples mentioned by Mr Wolfensohn. The World Bank leader said that the Bank has now earmarked US$ 450 million for regional projects in poor countries, adding that a number of the projects will be in the ECOWAS subregion. In addition the World Bank has US$ 2.3 billion in infrastructural projects under supervision and in preparation in ECOWAS countries.
Also The World Bank's chief economist for the Africa Region, Alan Gelb, was encouraged by the summit, saying the free trade area would help development in the region. The countries formed a "a bunch of small, locked up economies," which needed to create a larger economic space. Mr Gelb said the costs of energy were also very high in West Africa "so cooperative arrangements to share power - part of the economic integration agenda - can be very important."
World Bank analysts are unusually optimistic on behalf of the West African region's ability to achieve enhanced economic growth and stability, saying people here "at last have a fragile hope for a more prosperous future."
Strongly positive trends are already observed. This includes the democratisation of Nigeria - the region's greatest economy - and its new process of economic reform and poverty reduction. Further, some of West Africa's most intractable trouble spots - Liberia and Sierra Leone - are beginning to recover from years of conflict.
- If these positive trends continue, and if Côte d'Ivoire resolves its current impasse, there can be a basis for optimism in a region too long associated with violence, misgovernance and stagnation, the World Bank says in an analysis released yesterday.
According to the analysis, developments in Nigeria are crucial to the region's future. Mr Wolfensohn, in an official visit to the country last week, expressed confidence in the Nigerian government's emerging programme for economic development and reform and said the Bank was prepared to invest as much as US$ 1 billion over the next two years to support the effort. "If Nigeria succeeds, as I expect and hope it will, then that will change the face of Africa," he said.
Key problems in the region include "the fact that West Africa is geographically and economically fragmented and the region is not perceived as friendly to investment" due to armed conflicts and corruption, according to the analysis. With Nigeria leading the way and enhanced economic integration, this could now change, according to the Bank.
ECOWAS is composed of 15 West African countries, in addition to Nigeria - where half of all West Africans live - this includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
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