The subregion is the continent’s economic engine and accounts for 27 percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP), or approximately $700 billion, the financial institution noted.
Furthermore, the region achieves the best results in the African Regional Integration Index and, despite the challenges, can effectively position itself for the continental free trade area, the technical session stated.
However, transactions in goods and services between West African countries barely represent nine percent of imports and 10 percent of exports, which contrasts with the free movement of goods and people, recognized as one of ECOWAS’s main achievements, the AfDB reported on its website.
With a favorable credit rating of “AAA,” the bank plays an important role in supporting infrastructure investments, ECOWAS President Omar Alieu Touray acknowledged during the meeting in this capital.
In this regard, he praised several AfDB regional integration projects and operations, particularly the Mali-Mauritania electricity interconnection, the Burkina Faso-Mali-Ivory Coast road links, and the Abidjan-Lagos corridor.
He also encouraged the organization to strengthen its involvement in the peace-security-development nexus, while continuing to invest in regional corridors and other cross-border infrastructure.
While the banking counterpart advised ECOWAS to adopt measures to boost intra-EU trade, including the elimination of non-tariff barriers, it also considered it pertinent to harness the potential of the private sector to reduce the paradox of a “continent rich in natural resources but with the largest number of poor people” on the planet.
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