Problems of ecowas

Answer 1

Problems and Weaknesses of ECOWAS
As every regional organization, ECOWAS had to deal from the beginning with the inherent problems
in these cases, like for instance the effective coordination of policies throughout the region, the need to help
some countries that may suffer loses in the early stages or the need to surrender some sovereign powers in
the decision-making process. Since coordination of economic planning and economic policies demand
somehow surrender of part of sovereignty, integration problems could arise because states in the sub-region
seem to jealously guard their sovereignty.
In the ECOWAS Treaty, among its aims, there is no mention for bargaining between ECOWAS
countries and the rest of the world, especially the industrialized part of it. This is an important omission for
the need of the Member States to have a common stand on many issues and to bargain together with other
countries.
Another major criticism of ECOWAS as it emerges from the provisions of the Treaty is that “it would
create a free-trade zone favouring the more-developed Member States at the expense of the less-developed
ones”. Thus, elimination of customs duties among the members might open wider markets for those
countries that have already heavy industries, which means they could dominate the markets of the less
developed ones with products that are produced at lower costs, with cheaper raw materials from within the
community. As a consequence, the less developed members, facing higher costs, have to compete with
these economies of scale. The situation might nevertheless be improved through “harmonization of
economic and industrial policies which might have to share out areas of industrial specialization for the
various states making adequate provision for the less developed members”.
It should be added that most of the West African countries rely on primary agricultural produce for
their foreign-exchange earning. Therefore, the sharp drop in the prices of some of the agricultural products
coupled with inflation on imported goods leads to some countries to face balance-of-payments deficits while
countries with more diversified agricultural products coupled with minerals have surpluses on their balanceof-
payments accounts. Nevertheless, the solution is to give priority to policies harmonization especially in
the industrial sector because even though their agriculture is mostly underdeveloped, “the future economic
development, including the modernization of agriculture, is closely intertwined with their ability to industrialize
rapidly”.
Problems for ECOWAS could also arise from the existing material infrastructure of the West African
sub-region, which is hardly developed and thus constitutes a basic impediment to the growth of intra-regional
trade within the ECOWAS, for instance the internal and international road system or the need for modern
harbours, the telecommunications system, the need for a modern well-developed commercial banking
system or an organized exchange market. This underdeveloped material, human and institutional structure is
an essential factor in slowing down the full benefit of a multilateral system

by OGBU HENRY ODINAKA

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