Economic Community of West Africa has formulated fine policies that have failed to produce expected outcomes because of poor policy implementation. ITUNU AJAYI (Abuja) reports on the recent effort to address the challenge.

Since its inception in 1975, the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) has initiated different instruments targeted at trade improvement among member–states.

The instruments include the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), the Free Movement Protocol (supported with the Rights of Establishment and Rights of Residence), Common Industrial Policy, the Supplementary Protocol on Competition, and recently,   the Common External Tariff (CET), which is currently being implemented.
In a bid to interrogate the usefulness or otherwise of these instruments, the challenges associated with them and the way forward, the National Association of Nigeria Traders (NANTS) in collaboration with the German International Cooperation (GIZ) with the support from the European Union (EU) and German Government and the Government of Nigeria put a two-day dialogue together in Abuja.

The dialogue sought to know if Nigeria has really gained anything to warrant a continuous fellowship with the regional group. For instance, is Nigeria doing enough to harness the opportunities offered by the ECOWAS? Such was the kind of posser that drove the conversation at the event.
The NANTS concluded that all the protocols and instruments ever put together by the ECOWAS have not been implemented to the full capacity.  The association maintained that there has been weak adherence on the part of the enforcement agencies, government officials as well as trader- operators and transporters.  NANTS, therefore, wants Nigeria to be decisive about its membership of ECOWAS.
The president of the association Ken Ukaoha attributed the Nigeria’s lacklustre attitude to poor publicity, near absence of sensitisation and weak understanding of the regional frameworks and instruments.

He added that bribery and corruption, arbitrary delays of transit goods, harassments and intimidations, unnecessary and un-receipted charges have continued to distort the flow of regional trade and ultimately place additional costs on goods and services while also impeding growth and development of the region.

He said the trade and integration process in West Africa had suffered noticeable setback largely because of poor implementation of policy instruments put together and adopted by the regional leaders.

If Nigeria still desires to continue in its marriage with ECOWAS, Ukaoha said there is need for a comprehensive overview and appraisal of the status of trade and integration process with a view to identifying the challenges, removing the barriers, strengthening the instruments and straitening the rough road to implementation towards the realization of a full custom union.

‘’For us in NANTS, if West Africa must take this rightful position, Nigeria must stand up to her responsibility as the biggest country politically and economically in the region and lead the process of integration in a faster pace by deploying trade as an instrument for growth and development. This wake-up call has become imperative especially in the face of poverty turbulence currently pervading the ECOWAS region’’.

The programme officer, Trade policy ECOWAS commission Peter Joy Sewornoo said none of the protocols or instruments of the region can be fully implemented without the full cooperation of Nigeria, he said Nigeria would always have to be consulted if ECOWAS must move forward.
Sewornoo explained that 50 percent of ECOWAS population reside in Nigeria and its GDP to the region is higher than that of all other member states put together.

A statistics from the ECOWAS commission indicated that Nigeria is the largest contributor to the share of external trade 61.5 percent, and the largest contributor to intra-ECOWAS trade 42.5 percent; however the bulk of its export is oil.
Nigeria accounts for the lion’s share of the annual ECOWAS budget 31 percent; relative to only 12.6 percent by the second highest contributor- Cote d’Ivoire, as well as of the ECOWAS Fund 32 percent relative to only 13 percent by Cote d’Ivoire.
The EU is West Africa’s biggest trading partner, ahead of China, the US and India: the EU accounts for 37.8 percent of West Africa’s exports and 24.2 percent of West Africa’s imports.

However, with all the glowing big brother status of Nigeria in the ECOWAS narrative, discussants at the dialogue insisted that the country is not unleashing its potentials enough.  For instance, the monolithic nature of the country’s economy has continued to reduce the quantity by weight of its export.  Citing an example of the export of a truckload of Dangote cement to any African country compared with a truckload of ginger by some other country, a consultant with the commission Wumi Olayiwola said even a blind man would know that there is no basis for comparism.

He said the status of existing regional trade agreements is not too enticing and prospects of a custom union and common market may not be achieved if concerted efforts are not put in place in the region to address challenges inhibiting trade. He said diversification of the economy remain the only escape route for Nigeria if the much-needed wealth, job creation and security of lives and property must be attained.
For instance, Olayiwola said Nigeria registered the highest number of products under the ETLS but the number of products being exported is nothing to be proud about.  Faulting the lumping together of all countries under a particular instrument, Olayiwola said individual countries ought to be dealt with on the strength of their trade facilitation and trade performance which he said are not always the same with all countries.

He said the determinants of whether ECOWAS region will attain the full status of customs union will rest on four focal issues of the structure and rates of the CET, implications of a fully functioning and a partially functioning CET, establishment of the Institutions and modalities for trade defence measures and stakeholders involvement in trade policy process.
He said for specific objectives to be attained bearing in mind development aspirations and domestic policy and regulatory trajectory, consensus must around the specifics mandate and revision in reaction to the dynamics of the interactions and consultations with public sector, private Sector (c), Consumers and civil society while sustainability should be anchored on training, monitoring and evaluation and performance indicators.

Edwin Ikhuoria explained that West Africa will miss all the potential and opportunities inherent in it by virtue of its location and capacity if it does nothing to push its integration agenda beyond free movement of goods, capital, and persons.  He said despite the over 340 million people across the region and with a potential to attain over 400 million consumers level in 2020 which he said is the same as the United States of America and bigger than the European Union (EU) with 40 airports dotted across but the region has not been able to harness the benefits of integration as it has only recorded  an average of 5 percent  of GDP for over a decade.
He said the solution lies on improved infrastructure; skills development; and better policies, which are better implemented.
This again may not be achieved unless there are willing and competent institutions, political support at the highest level with a community of citizens who understand the rationale for integration and the need for private-sector partners and investors who come to the table with greater ambitions than making profits, he added.

Describing the existing private sector as a sleeping giant, Ikhuoria said it was time the private sector takes its place and begin to drive the economy while policies must have definite and distinctive goals.
His words, “The existing regional private sector organizations have so far not been as active.  Policies must leave the realm of literature to pragmatism that can only be driven by the private sector players themselves.  It is time that the private sector organizations in ECOWAS wake up from their sleep and lack of interest in the integration process to begin to drive the integration agenda based on negotiated common interest that can harness the large size of the regional market.

“There has to be targeted drive to achieve common frameworks for operations that will force the national governments to live up to their commitments in achieving a common market. While the private sector as a whole plays an interesting role within the West African region, the space is dominated by informal and small businesses rather than large regional players.’’
With all the players adherence to the rule of the game, Ikhuoria said the resultant effects would be stronger membership based lobby groups, sector specific regional interests,  attracting investments for regional projects, common front against external competition and regional Cabottage law which stipulates that only vessels from West Africa can carry goods along the coastal waters of the region to allow indigenous ship owners have exclusive rights to ply the West Africa waters.
The issue of informal trade across the sub-region also came up for discussion and participants submitted that though not captured, informal trade may constitute the bulk of trade in the region and it is imperative for some measures to be put in place for them to be captured so as to be able to know the exact trade volumes of individual member-states.