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Ecowas: Problems and Prospects

The creation of the Economic Community of West African States, with the acronym ECOWAS, is a response to a basic reality of our contemporary world. That reality seems to state "categorically" that no nation/state can achieve economic autarky no matter how well blessed, hence the universal movement or trend towards the formation of regional economic bodies. In other words, there is a growing awareness, among the West African States, that they would be able to promote the economic well-being of their peoples, solve some, if not all, the economic problems which the individual countries have, and generally bring about an overall improvement in the economy of the subregion if an economic community were formed. This article examines the attempts made prior to 1975 to establish an economic community in West Africa as well as the reasons why those attempts failed. The latter part of the article is devoted to a description of the structure and an examination of some of the problems and prospects of ECOWAS. The problems relate to the underlying economic and sociopolitical conditions characteristic of the subregion and those having to do with the integration process, viz, establishing a free trade area, a customs union, a common market, and lastly, harmonizing the fiscal and monetary policies. The article concludes that despite these problems the chances of success are good; that the gradual and cautious approach followed since its inception is, up to this point, the best, realizing as one does, the constraints under which it has been operating; that a major difficulty is due to arise when the Community tries to integrate