Economic Community of West African States

Comunidade Económica dos Estados da África Ocidental Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest Economic Community of West African States
UEMOA     WAMZ     ECOWAS only
Headquarters		Abuja, Nigeria
Largest city		Lagos, Nigeria
Official languages		English, French, Portuguese
Membership		15 members  Benin  Burkina Faso  Cape Verde  Côte d'Ivoire  Gambia  Ghana  Guinea  Guinea-Bissau  Liberia  Mali  Niger  Nigeria  Senegal  Sierra Leone  Togo
Leaders
-	Chairman	Goodluck Jonathan
-	President of the Commission	James Victor Gbeho
Establishment
-	Treaty of Lagos	May 28, 1975[1]
Area
-	Total	5,112,903 km2 (7th) 1,5,352,86 sq mi
Population
-	2006 estimate	251,646,263 (4th)
-	Density	115.6/km2  299.4/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2005 estimate
-	Total	U$ 342,519 Billion (28th)
-	Per capita	U$ 7,890
Currency		Cape Verdean escudo (CVE) Cedi (GHC)2 Dalasi (GMD)2 Guinean franc (GNF)2 Liberian dollar (LRD)3 Naira (NGN)2 Leone (SLL)3 West African CFA franc (XOF)
Time zone		(UTC0 to +2)
1	If considered as a single entity.
2	to be replaced by the eco in 2009.
3	Liberia has expressed an interest in joining the eco.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries, founded on May 28, 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos. Its mission is to promote economic integration. In 1976 Cape Verde joined ECOWAS, and in December 2000 Mauritania withdrew,^[2] having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.^[3]

It was founded to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for the member states by means of economic and monetary union creating a single large trading bloc. The very slow progress towards this aim meant that the treaty was revised in Cotonou on July 24, 1993, towards a looser collaboration. The ECOWAS Secretariat and the Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development are its two main institutions to implement policies. The ECOWAS Fund was transformed into the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development in 2001.

ECOWAS is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community.

The current President of the Commission is James Victor Gbeho. The current chairman is President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.

It operates officially in three coequal languages (English, French, and Portuguese).

Members

Current members

 Benin
 Burkina Faso
 Cape Verde
 Côte d'Ivoire
 Gambia
 Ghana
 Guinea-Bissau
 Liberia
 Mali
 Nigeria
 Senegal
 Sierra Leone
 Togo

Suspended members

 Guinea – suspended after 2008 coup d'état^[4][5]

 Niger – suspended after 2009 auto-coup^[6]

ECOWAS announced the suspension of Niger from the organisation on 20 October 2009.^[7] On 17 October ECOWAS had asked Niger to postpone its controversial 20 October elections.^[8] The elections had been boycotted by members of the opposition as President Tandja Mamadou faced accusations of trying to lengthen his reign.^[9] According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the organisation stated that the decision to go ahead with elections in Niger was "in total disregard of the authority of ECOWAS" and that it was "a clear move by the authorities in Niger to further entrench the constitutional illegality currently prevailing in the country".^[8]

Structure

President of the Commission

African Union

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From 1977 to 2006 the post name was Executive Secretary

• Aboubakar Diaby Ouattara (Côte d'Ivoire) January 1977 – 1985
• Momodu Munu (Sierra Leone) 1985–1989
• Abass Bundu (Sierra Leone) 1989–1993
• Édouard Benjamin (Guinea) 1993–1997
• Lansana Kouyaté (Guinea) September 1997 – 31 January 2002
• Mohamed Ibn Chambas (Ghana) 1 February 2002 – 31 December 2006

From the restructuring

• Mohamed Ibn Chambas (Ghana) 1 January 2007 – 18 February 2010
• James Victor Gbeho (Ghana) 18 February 2010 - present

Chairmen

• Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo) 1977–1978
• Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) 1978–1979
• Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal) 1979–1980
• Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo) 1980–1981
• Siaka Stevens (Sierra Leone) 1981–1982
• Mathieu Kérékou (Benin) 1982–1983
• Ahmed Sékou Touré (Guinea) 1983–1984
• Lansana Conté (Guinea) 1984–1985
• Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria) 1985 – 27 August 1985
• Ibrahim Babangida (Nigeria) 27 August 1985 – 1989
• Dawda Jawara (The Gambia) 1989–1990
• Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso) 1990–1991
• Dawda Jawara (The Gambia) 1991–1992
• Abdou Diouf (Senegal) 1992–1993
• Nicéphore Soglo (Benin) 1993–1994
• Jerry John Rawlings (Ghana) 1994 – 27 July 1996
• Sani Abacha (Nigeria) 27 July 1996 – 8 June 1998
• Abdulsalami Abubakar (Nigeria) 9 June 1998 – 1999
• Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo) 1999
• Alpha Oumar Konaré (Mali) 1999 – 21 December 2001
• Abdoulaye Wade (Senegal) 21 December 2001 – 31 January 2003
• John Agyekum Kufuor (Ghana) 31 January 2003 – 19 January 2005
• Mamadou Tandja (Niger) 19 January 2005 – 19 January 2007
• Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso) 19 January 2007 – 19 December 2008
• Umaru Yar'Adua (Nigeria) 19 December 2008 – 18 February 2010
• Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria) 18 February 2010 - present

Regional security cooperation

The ECOWAS nations have signed a non-aggression protocol in 1990 and two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They have also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on May 29, 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.

See also: ECOMOG

The Community Court of Justice

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991, and included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community that came into existence in 1993.^[10] The Court legally came into being when the 1991 protocol entered into force on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the Community Court of Justice is laid out in Article 9 and Article 76 of the Revised Treaty, and includes ruling on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty and providing the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts the European Communities Court of Justice and the East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction over fundamental human rights breaches.^[10]

Sporting and cultural exchange

ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sport meetings under the auspices of the body, ranging from the CEDEAO Cup in football, to the Miss CEDEAO Beauty pageant.

Economic participation

West African Economic and Monetary Union

The West African Economic and Monetary Union (or UEMOA from its name in French, Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine) is an organization of eight states of West Africa established to promote economic integration among countries that share a common currency, the CFA franc. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on January 10, 1994 by the Heads of State and Government of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On May 2, 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became its eighth (and only non-Francophone) member state.

UEMOA is a customs union and monetary union between some of the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives are^[11]

• Greater economic competitiveness, through open and competitive markets, along with the rationalization and harmonization of the legal environment
• The convergence of macroeconomic policies and indicators
• The creation of a common market
• The coordination of sectoral policies
• The harmonization of fiscal policies

In terms of its achievements, UEMOA members have implemented macroeconomic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism; have adopted a customs union and common external tariff (early 2000); have harmonized indirect taxation regulations; and have initiated regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.^[12] ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common program of action on trade liberalization and macroeconomic policy convergence. ECOWAS and UEMOA have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA’s customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.^[13]

West African Monetary Zone

The West African Monetary Zone is a group of five countries in ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency, the Eco by the year 2015. The five member states are the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Liberia (also a member of ECOWAS) has expressed an interest in joining. The WAMZ is dominated by Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer and most populous country, with an estimated 145 million people. All the members of group are English-speaking countries, apart from Guinea, which is Francophone. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.

The WAMZ was formed in 2000 to try and establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and Eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being prepared by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana. This is intended to be the forerunner of a common central bank. However, several of the WAMZ's countries suffer from weak currencies and chronic budget deficits which are currently plugged by their central banks printing more and more notes of decreasing real value.

Transport

A 2007 Trans-ECOWAS project plans to upgrade railways in this zone, including Ghana.^[14]

See also

• The Arab League
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• The European Union
• EFTA

References

External links

• West-African Monetary Institute
• Official Website (In French)
• WAEMU Treaty
• ECOWAS Official Web Site
• ECOWAS Secretariat Official Web Site: includes calendar of meetings.
• ECOWAS Parliament
• ECOWAS Revised Treaty
• ECOBANK - African banking group, present in thirty (30) countries on the African continent plus France in Europe. ECOBANK's Initial Public Offer of eight million plus shares in Accra, Ghana in May 2006 was oversubscribed. The listing of this IPO, landed ECOBANK on the Ghana Stock Exchange. As of December 2009, ECOBANK stock is also listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange and on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM), the stock exchange of Francophone West African countries in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
• More About Ecobank
• PowerPoint presentation of ECOWAS, 2004
• Mbendi profile
• Security by proxy? The EU and (sub-)regional organisations: the case of ECOWAS, by Bastien Nivet, Occasional Paper No. 63, March 2006, European Union Institute for Security Studies