Economic Community of West African States

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:ECOWAS Flag.png The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group initially of sixteen countries, founded on May 28, 1975 when sixteen West African countries signed the Treaty of Lagos. Its mission is to promote economic integration. In 2000 Mauritania withdrew its membership from ECOWAS. 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 24 July 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.

Member states of ECOWAS are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The current Executive Secretary is Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas. The current chairman is President Mamadou Tandja of Niger.

1 Members
2 Currency Cooperation
3 Free movement of people
4 Regional Security Cooperation
5 Comparision with other Regional blocs
6 Executive Secretaries
7 Chairmen
8 See also
9 External links

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Members

Image:Ecowas map.png

Current members
- Template:BEN (1975)
- Template:BUR (1975)
- Template:CPV (joined 1976)
- Template:CIV (1975)
- Template:GMB (1975)
- Template:GHA (1975)
- Template:GUI (1975)
- Template:GBS (1975)
- Template:LBR (1975)
- Template:MLI (1975)
- Template:NIG (1975)
- Template:NGA (1975)
- Template:SEN (1975)
- Template:SLE (1975)
- Template:TOG (1975)

Former members
- Template:MRT (1975; quit 2002)

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Currency Cooperation

Image:UEMOA and Eco in ECOWAS.PNG

Main article: CFA franc

The West African CFA franc (XOF), created on December 26, 1945, is currently used in six formerly French-ruled African countries, as well as in Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese colony). It is managed by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).

Main article: Eco (currency)

The Eco is the proposed name for the common currency the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) plans to introduce on 1 December, 2009. The WAMZ includes the anglophone countries of Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and the francophone nation of Guinea. Liberia is also interested in joining this monetary union.

The ultimate goal is to unite the UEMOA and the WAMZ to form a single monetary zone in West Africa (ECOWAS), which Cape Verde would then also join.

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Free movement of people

ECOWAS Travel certificate has entered into circulation in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
ECOWAS Passport is printed and operational in Benin, Mali and Senegal.

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Regional Security Cooperation

The ECOWAS nations have signed a non-aggression protocol in 1990 as well as two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They've also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May, 1989 that was to create an Allied Armed Force of the Community (AAFC) as needed.

See also: ECOMOG

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