Businessday :: News you can trust

…Proffer way forward for 34-year-old ailing sub-regional organisation
They came from across the industry – exporters, business chieftains, business consultants, technocrats, business start-ups, etc.

Their major worry; Nigeria and its 14 other ECOWAS counterparts, have, for 34 years,  not taken full advantage of the business opportunities in the ECOWAS sub-region. They have not even bothered to remove the obstacles that stand on their way of accessing these advantages.
The forum, a baby of Lagos Chamber of Commerce (LCCI) and Industry and Africaseed International Limited, did justice to this pain in the neck issue.
Solomon Onafowokan, president of LCCI in his paper, reeled out the obstacles holding ECOWAS back and of main concern is the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS). The obstacles, according to him are political and economic.
Hear him: The ECOWAS trade Liberalisation treaty contains excellent provisions to develop and promote trade within the West African Sub region, but progress has been rather slow and impeded by a number of factors.  These factors are both political and economic. His list of political factors includes: Lack of desired political will to implement treaties and drive the integration process; Colonial allegiance and loyalty, sometimes taking precedence over regional protocols; Reluctance to surrender, even partially, sovereignty and economic nationalism; The quality of political governance and corruption; Political and Social conflicts; Flawed electoral processes, most often, leading to severe conflicts.
He had the following as economic obstacles: Inadequate inclusion of the Private sector in the preparation and implementation of integration treaties; Product Homogeneity, which limits the range of products which could be traded; Language barriers among economic players; Weak Manufacturing Sectors in most of the member states, arising largely from poor infrastructure conditions; Inadequate capital for investment in most member states; Tariff and Non Tariff Barriers.
This is major problem in many member states, Policy inconsistency; Low level of economic policy convergence necessary for proper integration; the following infrastructure issues made up the third leg: Road Network within the sub region is poor, making Trade relations difficult; Poor ICT infrastructure and low computer literacy.  It is sometimes easier to call (on phone) Europe than to call a neighboring West African Country; Interregional flights are few, and non-existent in some cases; Intra regional Rail linkages are virtually non-existent; and few regional shipping activities.
The LCCI president’s paper therefore set the platform on which discussions at the forum took off from. But he did not stop at listing problems, he also proffered solutions to these constraints of intra regional trade as follows:
o Partnership and Cooperation of the various private sector entities in the sub region.
o Cross border investments should be encouraged.
o Greater advocacy by Private sector organizations to promote economic integration.
o Development of Private Sector Champions of West African regional economy. The Federation of West African Chamber of Commerce (FWACC) could play this role if reinvigorated and well positioned.
o Development of a framework to make the private sector drive the regional integration process.
o Active promotion and investment in regional Tourism to give citizens better exposure to the opportunities in the region.
o Closer collaboration among Private Sector organizations such as Chambers of Commerce, Business Associations and Professional Bodies.
Africaseed International Limited CEO,  Shade Bembatoum-Young’s remarks on the ETLS were resourceful and apt. She is the CEO, Africaseed international Limited and coordinator of the forum. For her, every ECOWAS citizen should feel deeply concerned about the slow pace of implementation of the ETLS and do whatever he or she can to ensure that the sub-region catches up with the rest of the world by making the ECOWAS Customs Union a reality in the shortest possible time.
For her, in order to remove the obstacles standing on the way of ETLS, ECOWAS citizens in general and economic operators and government officials in the sub-region in particular, must feel a sense of ownership of the trade and investment programmes of ECOWAS.
She explained, “This means that they must be familiar with such programmes  so that they can identify with the vision of the founding fathers which was based on the aspirations of the people of the sub region at that point in time; an improvement in the standard of living of the peoples of the West African sub region.” She said these aspirations have not changed “but unfortunately the peoples of the sub region have become even more impoverished”.
She is therefore concerned about how the free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital within ECOWAS sub-region can lead to the creation of wealth and reduction of poverty. How does she think this can be done? She proffered a greater understanding by all stakeholders  of how trade liberalisation, which will lead to a substantial increase in the levels of recorded intra-ECOWAS trade, will create jobs, reduce unemployment and generate income throughout the sub-region. She advised that the custom departments and ministries of finance in the sub-region need to be aware of the current role that their counterparts worldwide have adopted as facilitators  of income generation  and economic growth  through increased trade  rather than  direct revenue collectors.
For Shade Bembatoum-Young, effective regional economic integration is widely regarded as a stepping stone for developing countries to learn how to play a more active role in the multilateral trading system. “By identifying and pooling together their competitive advantages, they too can become players in the global economy,” she said.
She argued unless ECOWAS can be transformed into a strong and unified economic grouping the countries of the West African sub-region can never have a strong voice in international trade negotiations.
Humphrey Abah, Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry who was represented by Abubakar Mohammed, permanent secretary in the ministry, listed  steps government is taking to bring about a reprieve regarding trade in the West African sub-region.. In respect of the Common External Tariff (CET), he said Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, championed the adoption of a fifth band of 35 per cent by the sub-region and has already started working on the categorization of products under the 5th band. “With the CET in place, the fear of dumping of goods through other member countries’ borders would be allayed, and smuggling will reduce at our borders, ” he said.
Regarding the removal of non tariff barriers, the minister said Nigeria has officially directed that joint checkpoints (of relevant border agencies) should be established from the entry border posts and reduced to a maximum of three in order to facilitate the movement of goods and services. He added  that the National Focal Point, an inter-institutional body which consists of all the main regulators as well as operators  of trade, from the private sector and civil society, has been reconstituted and expanded to take care of all issues on trade. “Within it, a Committee on Trade Facilitation would be set up and be responsible for monitoring the proliferation of illegal checkpoints and other non-technical, non tariff barriers to trade, among other things,” he said.   
He said Nigeria has commenced the sensitization of operators and other stake-holders on the ETLS and introduced a fast track process through the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria together with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to set up information desks in their offices. “This arrangement will no doubt assist exporters to have easier access to the ETLS application forms, guide them to complete the forms correctly and assist them to handle any other challenges.”
On infrastructural problem, he added that government has adopted policies to foster improvements in transportation infrastructure and services (road, rail, water way and air), as well as reliable utilities (power, water, telecommunications).
A historical bent was introduced to the discussion by Shade Bembatoum,  co-coordinator of the forum. She drew on the historical experience of Europe which she advised ECOWAS should use as benchmark. After the experience of two world wars the European Union which made it possible for European countries to cooperate in terms of investment was formed she said.  And since the coming of the EU, she argued, there has been no war between European countries and the EU has remained strong.
She argued we have had our own wars, the Liberia and Sierra Leone civil wars and some others. We can make the ECOWAS union work too, she said.
Romeo Barberopoulos, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Export Group, held that the Union was possible and supported his argument with the cases of Italy and United Kingdom which started as smaller separate states in the past. For him the problem has to do with distrust the Francophone region has for the Anglophone. He said the Francophone has a strong union and is scared of getting involved in the ECOWAS union.
The solution, according to him, is that ECOWAS should think of creating a union of 250 million people and not 15 states. For him, it is not the government or the heads of states of these 15 states that will make ECOWAS union work, it is the people. He cited Germany whose people pulled down the Berlin Wall dividing West and East Germany and made the East and West Germany to reunite.
Chike Offokaja, an international economic consultant said Nigeria is ten times the size of the West African sub-region and as such has domestic market challenges to meet and as such, Nigeria is thinking domestic trade and not international trade. Offokaja explained “it took the US a long time to think about export because it had a vibrant large domestic market”.
He made the same case for India . He said the size of these countries was large market enough for their manufactured products and so were contented, for a long time, with the domestic market.
Nigeria is not flying high in export because, according to him, Nigerian exporters detest battling with the huge problems of unstable power, bad roads, transport problem and border checkpoints menace.
He explained that unlike Nigeria,  small countries such as Mozambique, Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho , Madagascar, Malawi , Mauritius , Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia are doing well with Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) export.  Said he “Whilst they are taking advantage of AGOA, Nigeria is struggling to share oil money, another reason why Nigeria is not thinking non-oil export”.
For Bashir Borodo, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) “The ECOWAS market is huge enough, over 300 million in population and largely untapped by Nigerian investors and business people. Nigeria , as the largest economy in the sub-region is supposed to provide the lead economic development through vibrant private sector led investment and trading. This can only occur if we have a thriving manufacturing sector that is properly and deeply integrated into a revived agricultural sector, the vast mineral deposits of the nation and a flourishing down stream petroleum and petrochemical industries.”
Tayo Ogunsulire, a retired diplomat advised education, effective communication, good governance, harmonization of trade among nations, and cooperation among member states. For him, Nigeria has a crucial role to play in the drive to make the protocols in question work since Nigeria accounts for three quarters of the economy of West Africa .
 Meanwhile, African nations doing business with the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act have resolved to take a new approach based on regional trading blocs in their quest for a bigger share of the American market. This has come even as passionate calls are being made for African countries to increase trade among themselves.
At the 8th Agoa Forum in Nairobi recently, Kenya ’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Africa must “focus strongly on building regional trade”, which he said remains so pitifully small.
“We must re-orient our export strategies to focus strongly on inter-African trade; that is where there is immediate growth,” he said, adding: “Before we even think of Agoa, it is possible to trade with ourselves.”
And at a roundtable during the forum, trade ministers from the 38 African countries mandated their regional economic communities to coordinate Agoa-related activities to boost exports to the US . This is aimed at helping the countries deal with issues that have prevented them from taking full advantage of the trade arrangement.