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THE ROLE OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GROUPS IN THE 

GLOBALIZATION PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC 

COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

 
Akwara, Azalahu F.[a]’*; Ezirim, Gerald E.[bl; Udaw, Joseph E.[al; Akwara, Ngozi F.[c] 

Department of Political Science, Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria. 
[a] Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria. 

[b] The Federal Polytechnic Idah, Kogi State, Nigeria. 
*Corresponding author. 

 

Abstract 

A regional integration by its very nature integrates its members into an economic union and acts 

as a bloc on matters affecting its members vis-a-vis other regional blocs and non-members. Its 

hegemonic nature of hedging its members against all forms of exploitation and intimidation by 

other regional blocs and non-members and its desire to stem the tide of trade diversion, and to 

create and foster intra-union flow of trade, factors and investment at the exclusion of non-

members and other regional blocs run contradictory to the aims and objectives of the 

globalization process which is the integration of the world economy through the breaking down 

of trade and investment barriers worldwide. Given these contradictory objectives of the regional 

blocs and the globalization process, this study examines the roles of the ECOWAS as an agent in 

the globalization process in the West African sub-region, its constraints, and solutions to the 

problems.  

 

Key words: Regional; Integration; Globalization; Blocs; Security; Trade 

 

INTRODUCTION 

The last century saw the establishment 

of regional economic and political 

groups in various geographical regions 

of the world, and the establishment of 

international financial institutions and 

multilateral groups that provide 

specialised services, funds and advice on 

development, while others are specially 

established to maintain regional peace 

and security. 

 

There are about eight major regional 

groups in Africa, six in Asia, Middle 

East and the Pacific, three in Europe and 

six others in the Western hemisphere 

(Nemedra, 1998). The most prominent 

of them all is the European Union (EU) 

established by the Treaty of Rome in 

1958. This is followed by the North 

American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), 

which was established in 1972. The third 

is the Association of South East Asian 

Nations (ASEAN) established in 1967. 

The fourth is the Latin- American 

Integration Association (LAIA) 

established by the Montevideo Treaty of 

1960, and the fifth is the Economic 

Community of West African States 

(ECOWAS) established by the Treaty of 

Lagos on May 28, 1975 but came into 

operation in July 1975. 

 

 

 



 

 

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The Role of Regional Economic and Political Groups in the Globalization Process: A Case Study of the 

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

The major objectives of these regional 

integrations especially the ECOWAS is 

the establishment of an economic union 

in the sub-region and the achievement of 

full economic and monetary integration 

of the subregion: and the harmonization 

of economic, industrial and agricultural 

policies of the members of the 

ECOWAS. 

 

To develop into an economic union just 

like the European Union (EU) the 

ECOWAS is supposed to undergo 

various stages of development just like 

the European Union. (Osagie, 1976) 

 

The first stage is the Free Trade Area 

(FTA), which is the lowest form of 

economic integration. At this stage the 

member states eliminate import duties 

from member states but each member is 

free to impose its own duty or import 

tariff on non-members which may be 

different from those imposed by other 

member states on the non-member. 

After a period of time, the integration 

would move into the next stage being a 

customs union (CU). 

 

The customs union is reached when the 

members of the regional group eliminate 

import tariffs on goods from other 

members of the group; but all members 

of the group maintain a common import 

tariff on non-members. 

 

From the stage of the CU, the regional 

integration would progress into a 

common market (CM). The common 

market has all the features of the 

customs union and also provides 

unrestricted movement of labour and 

capital among the member states. From 

common market, the regional integration 

would move into the stage of economic 

union (EU). The economic union has all 

features of the common market and goes 

on to provide for the central 

coordination and harmonization of 

policies in such areas as planning 

industrialization, monetary policy and 

exchange rate determination. This is the 

stage the ECOWAS hopes to attain 

before the end of the next decade. 

 

All regional economic groups by their 

very nature integrate their members and 

act as a bloc on matters affecting 

members of the regional group and other 

regional blocs and non-member nations. 

Whereas trade and investment barriers 

are removed from members of a regional 

group, trade and investment barriers are 

built through the integration process 

against non-members. (These protective 

walls are intended to provide an 

economic union within the group at the 

exclusion of nonmembers and protect 

the interest of domestic capital within 

the region as well as to confer on the 

region an advantage that would make it 

strong to compete around the world with 

other regional blocs. 

 

Capital needs secure environment to 

thrive. It needs political stability and to 

some extent the harmonization of laws 

among the nation-states in the 

integration, hence the need for regional 

defense groups that would help to 

maintain peace and security in the 

regions in particular and the world at 



 

 

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large. 

 

The ECOWAS was firstly designed as a 

regional economic integration but its 

military activities in the recent times in 

the sub-region have turned it into a 

regional defence group also. The 

ECOWAS has successfully restored 

peace and democratic rule in Liberia and 

Sierra Leone and is undertaking peace 

enforcement missions in various parts of 

the sub-region. 

 

Looking at the developmental stages of 

the regional integrations, their structures 

and functions at each stage of the 

development and their ultimate 

objectives—political and economic 

union. These aims and objectives and the 

methods of achieving them seem to be 

contradictory to the aims and objectives 

of the globalization process which is the 

breaking down of the trading and 

investment barriers; and the free 

movement of capital and personnel 

across national boundaries globally. 

 

Since the regional Integrations are 

hegemonic in nature— hedging the 

regional groups against non-members of 

the groups and against other regional 

groups, it becomes pertinent to examine 

their roles, especially the ECOWAS, in 

the globalization process if they are 

vehicles or obstacles in the globalization 

process. 

 

1. REGIONAL INTEGRATION 

THEORY AND THE 

GLOBALIZATION PROCESS 

The neo-functional theory of integration 

was first used by Mitrany (1943); 

refined and popularised by Haas (1961; 

1964; 1968,) Haas and Schimitter 

(1964); and has been used by Lindberg 

(1965; 1963); Lindberg and Schingold 

(1970); and Jacob and Tescano (1964); 

and a host of other scholars in the study 

of regional integration. 

 

The central theme of the integration 

theory is that the modern state due to 

developments in technology and rapid 

industrialization is incapable of 

maintaining economic growth and 

existing economic structures through its 

own efforts. Invariably, the modern state 

cannot satisfy the needs and aspirations 

of their citizens when acting alone 

because they are confined to definite 

territories whereas the needs of their 

citizens cut across national boundaries. 

Consequently, the nation-states are 

forced into a number of independent 

relations with others. And these sets of 

relationships are beyond the control of 

the industrialized states. Once the new 

relationships have been established, they 

give rise to the formation of new bodies 

or agencies that are supra- national in 

nature to whom the integrating states 

delegate part of their authority or 

sovereignty. The supranational body 

works to satisfy the whole nations 

involved in the integration process rather 

that of an individual state 

 

The supranational body whose birth was 

as a result of the economic and technical 

cooperation of the nations would later 

assume an independence of the nations 

and then encroaches upon the 



 

 

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Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

responsibilities and powers which were 

formally within the premise of the 

national governments that gave birth to 

it. As a result of this encroachment, the 

freedom and authority of the cooperating 

nations are reduced with respect to the 

issues covered in the integration. 

 

The managers of the supra-national body 

are drawn from the various nations 

involved in the cooperation and are 

isolated and insulated from national 

competition and political intervention 

because they represent the conception of 

common good, and are also free from 

international conflict. And the 

supranational entity which they 

administer is expected to undergo a 

metamorphosis into a political union 

with time. 

 

The concept of integration has been used 

by scholars and statesmen to mean 

different things at different times. At the 

formative stage of the European Union 

(EU), as Lindberg (1963) noted, it meant 

either political unification or economic 

and political cooperation. Jacob and 

Tescano (1964) define the term as the 

minimal consensus which permits the 

maintenance of a social order, the 

functioning of the system of public and 

private institutions for the production 

and distribution of goods and services 

considered as essential, the recognition 

of the minimal rights of groups within a 

system, and the provision of those 

services necessary to maintain the 

system and permit its normal growth and 

change. 

 

Deutsch (1957) speaks of international 

integration as a process leading to the 

creation of security community which is 

based on the assumption that the 

political leaders of the integrating units 

and their societies in general cease to 

contemplate the possibility of mutual 

warfare; the integrating units ceasing to 

allocate resources for the building of 

military capabilities aimed at each other; 

and the mutual but rigorous observation 

by the integrating state of certain rules of 

international laws and bilateral treaties 

when collective objectives of the 

integrating states are not in harmony. 

This of course involves the avoidance of 

military threats, meeting treaty 

obligations, avoidance of interference in 

the internal affairs of the integrating 

states and the observance of normal 

diplomatic protocol and etiquette in all 

transactions and negotiations. 

 

Haas (1964; 1968) sees it as a process 

whereby political architects in several 

distinct national settings are persuaded 

to shift their loyalties, expectations and 

political activities towards a new centre 

whose institutions possess and demand 

jurisdiction or power over existing 

national states. 

 

The study of regional integration is 

concerned with explaining how and why 

states should cease to be completely 

sovereign; how and why they voluntarily 

mingle and mix with their neighbours 

and not lose their factual attribute of 

sovereignty, while at the same time, they 

acquire new techniques of solving 

problems and disputes among 



 

 

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themselves. Haas and Schmitter (1964) 

have argued that the economic 

integration of a number of nations would 

automatically lead to a political unity. In 

their view, the initial step to integration 

is economic but these have political 

implications especially as to how much 

power or national sovereignty is 

necessary to delegate to the union. And 

although crises occur over the need to 

take political decisions, disintegration 

does not occur. This is because each 

nation-state sees benefits in abiding by 

the integration process and penalties in 

abandoning it. 

 

Haas’ analysis also postulates that as 

pressure groups and business entities 

gain from the process, they are 

stimulated to urge that the process be 

intensified. The pressures generated by 

the business and interest groups are so 

much that they bear on the national 

governments to make further 

integration. Haas therefore says that “the 

superiority of step-by-step economic 

decisions over crucial political choice is 

assumed as constant” Given all these 

conditions the progression from a 

politically inspired common market to 

an economic union and finally to a 

political union among state is automatic. 

 

However, the concept of integration has 

come to mean greater cooperation and 

unity among nation states in the area of 

trade and investment, the mobility of 

human and material resources across 

national boundaries, defence and 

security, culture and technology, 

agriculture and energy production. It is 

this cooperation and unity in areas of 

trade and investment and all other areas 

enumerated above that has come to ‘be 

referred to as globalization or world 

integration. 

 

Globalization as Kwanshie (1998) 

pointed out is the process of integrating 

economic decision-making such as the 

consumption, investment and saving 

processes across national boundaries; as 

the process of creating a global market 

place in which all nations of the world 

are participants; and as the shifting of 

autonomous economies into a global 

system of production and distribution. 

As Odozi (1998) rightly noted, 

globalization is better understood when 

one considers the ease with which trade 

and investment transactions take place, 

coupled with the mobility of capital and 

technology and the unfettered 

movement of people across the globe in 

recent times. 

 

The emphasis of globalization is on the 

interdependence of people and nations 

as it involves’ the interchange of ideas, 

skills, technology and resources within 

the universal market economy 

continuously. Thus Olusanya (1998) has 

described it as a world-wide movement 

from local to universal socioeconomic 

system aimed at the unification of the 

world market. And this unification as 

Fafowara (1998) pointed out is done 

through trade libralization, global 

reduction of tariffs and the opening of 

new markets. As Kwanashie (1998) also 

observed, the thing en-vogue over 

globalization is the interdependence of 



 

 

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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

nations as the world is witnessing a 

significant level of convergence in 

development strategies as capitalism 

gains acceptance in countries, which 

were centrally planned before now. 

 

Globalization as Kwaneshie (1998) 

views it does not necessarily involve the 

harmonization or integration of socio-

political units but strengthens and 

promotes existing social and political 

systems. “It is simply a process of 

intensified and broadened 

interdependence among nations”. The 

process simply creates a global market 

place, which with the development in 

information technology can be accessed 

by anyone from any location. The 

internal laws of nations would still have 

to operate regulating how individuals or 

groups would be affected. The process 

opens up a world of opportunities for 

business. It links peoples and nations to 

markets, which were unknown to them, 

and provides prospect for growth. 

 

As Olusanya (1998) pointed out, 

globalization involves free trade across 

national boundaries, privatization of 

government owned industries, 

transparency in government, healthy 

competition among business units, and 

adequate information for decision 

making, comparative advantage and 

elimination of middle men. But 

Kwanashie (1998) sees the concept to be 

much more than what has been 

expressed by Olusanya (1998) above. It 

goes on to include the harmonization of 

the economic rules that govern 

relationships between sovereign states; 

the creation of structures to support and 

facilitate interdependence of sovereign 

states, and the harmonization of political 

systems and enthronement of western 

culture (democracy) in non-western 

nations. 

 

Oloyede (1998) was quick in pointing 

out that regionalism and globalization or 

globalism, are not the same thing. 

Globalization in his view refers to the 

conduct of international transactions in 

accordance with rules, regulations and 

procedures establishing the international 

order or system, and for which global 

institutions were established to ensure 

the smooth and orderly functioning of 

the system. By contrast, regionalism 

refers to the pursuit of agreed objectives 

by members of a defined geographic 

region in the world for which regional 

institutions are established. Examples of 

such global economic institutions being 

the Bretton Woods Institutions, The 

General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs 

(GATT) and the World Trade 

Organisation (WTO). Such institutions 

as these are established to provide the 

mechanisms for attainment of the liberal 

economic order. By contrast the 

European Union (EU), Economic 

Community of West African States 

(ECOWAS) and a host of such others are 

regional groupings. The conflict over the 

concept of integration (which now is two 

dimensional—regionalism and 

globalism)  Oloyede (1998) maintains, 

centers more on the expression of the 

concept of integration as a state of affair 

(as an end in itself), and as a process. As 

a process regionalism could over time 



 

 

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progress to globalization while as a state 

of affair or as an end in itself, 

regionalism may veer away from 

globalism. 

 

Several scholars have advanced reasons 

for this drive for expansion in world 

trade or globalization, some advancing 

Ricardo’s theory of comparative 

advantage (“The Economist”, 1998) 

while several others see this drive for 

expansion in world trade and investment 

as necessarily due to the benefits that 

would accrue to the nations involved. 

According to Odozi (1998) any nation 

that embraces the globalization process 

stands to benefit in the following areas: 

advancement in technology, new 

innovations would emerge in it for faster 

and improved method of delivery of 

goods and services, capital mobility for 

domestic investment financing, 

improved productivity and higher 

standard of living; international division 

of labour which would facilitate 

comparative advantage among business 

units, better quality products and 

cheaper goods and services. However 

some other scholars though 

acknowledging the benefits of the 

globalization process see it as being 

necessitated by the need by the 

developed nations to cope with the 

strains imposed on their economies by 

periods of unstable economic growth 

(Baron, 1962; Cockcroft, Frank, & 

Johnson, 1970); other reasons are to 

keep up profit in the use of capital 

(Kemp, 1980); to jump tariff walls, 

secure vital sources of raw materials and 

markets; and the pressure of surplus 

capital at home (Magdoff, 1980). 

 

Whatever may be the motives behind the 

globalization process, it is believed that 

it aims at fostering sustainable growth 

and development in all nations of the 

world. And a successful globalization 

would be impossible without the 

involvement of the various governments 

of the nation—states. The governments 

are needed not only to develop the 

needed markets and to build the 

supportive infrastructural facilities, 

which would be extremely difficult for 

the business units to undertake, but also 

to secure and protect opportunities for 

foreign investment and free trade 

(“Business Week”, 1999) and the 

elimination of trade rivals for domestic 

firms and regional groups where 

possible. (“The Economist”, 1999; 

“Business Week”, 1995). The various 

national leaderships or governments are 

expected to institutionalize democracy 

and evolve national policies that are 

conducive to foreign investment 

(“Times”, 2000). The governments are 

also expected to deregulate their national 

economies if such had been centrally 

planned; privatize and commercialise 

the activities and services of government 

owned companies (“The Economist”, 

1995a; 1995b). 

 

2. ECOWAS AS AN AGENT IN 

THE GLOBALISATION PROCESS 

The extent to which the ECOWAS as a 

regional bloc has been able to influence 

the provision of: 

 Basic infrastructure within the 

region 



 

 

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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

 Political stability, peace and, 

security within the ECOWAS 

sub-region 

 Efficient clearance and 

settlement system for all 

financial obligations 

 Negotiate trade and investment 

deals with other regional blocs 

and non-ECOWAS members on 

behalf of the ECOWAS 

members since its inception will 

be examined to determine 

whether the regional integration 

is an agent or an impediment to 

the globalization process. 

 

2.1 ECOWAS and the Provision of 

Basic Infrastructural Facilities 

For the various no lions or the world to 

benefit optimally from the globalization 

process, they are expected to provide the 

necessary infrastructural facilities that 

would support the globalization process, 

especially in the areas of trade 

investment, communication and 

industrial production. Their 

governments are advised to seek 

financial assistance from international 

financial institutions, and from the 

developed nations for the provision of 

their basic infrastructural facilities. 

 

Since the financial aids for the provision 

of these infrastructural facilities are hard 

to come by, one expects that the 

ECOWAS as a regional economic and 

political group would help the various 

nations in the sub-region to cooperate 

with one another to jointly provide these 

facilities, and also secure the assistance 

of other regional blocs and donor nations 

to attract funds to the region for 

development purposes. 

 

The ECOWAS as a bloc has been able to 

encourage the various nations in the bloc 

to cooperate with one another in this 

regard. Trans-West African highway is 

being built to link the various West 

African nations. A technical group has 

been set up by ECOWAS recently to 

facilitate the establishment of the West 

African Telecommunications 

Regulators Association (WATRA) 

(ECOWAS, 2001, p.33). The group 

comprises Benin, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria 

and Senegal. 

 

The African Telecommunication Union 

(ATU) and the African Connection 

Centre for Strategic Planning (ACCSP) 

set up by the African Ministers of 

Telecommunication). The major 

objective of the WATRA is to establish 

a single liberalised Telecommunications 

market with a teledensity of at least 30% 

by the end of 2006. The idea of 

establishing the WATRA is in 

recognition of the sub-regional initiative 

to meet the challenges posed by the 

globalization process, and the need to 

encourage a harmonized and unified 

approach to telecommunications 

development in Africa. 

 

The ECOWAS has also been able to 

foster cooperation amongst the West 

African nations for the development of 

the West African Power Pool (WAPP) to 

promote the efficient use of the energy 

resources of the region through the 



 

 

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integration of their power grids and joint 

development of energy sources 

(ECOWAS, 2001, p.32). 

 

The ECOWAS has been able also to get 

the member states to develop an 

industrial policy (ECOWAS, 2001, 

p.19). The new Community Industrial 

Development Policy (ClDP) will help 

address the deficiency of the industrial 

development cooperation adopted in 

1983 by the ECOWAS Heads of State 

and Governments which would help 

provide a framework for the elaboration 

and implementation of programs to 

promote industrial development in the 

sub-region 

 

2.2 ECOWAS and Security in the 

ECOWAS Sub-Region 

Trade and investment needs stable 

political climates to flourish. Investors 

shy away from nations and regions with 

unstable and volatile political climates 

as such areas are threats and destructive 

to investments and personnel. To create 

a conducive political climate in the West 

African sub-region in order to attract 

foreign capital and investment to the 

region, the ECOWAS created an 

intervention and peace enforcement 

force—the ECOWAS Monitoring 

Group (ECOMOG) with the mandate to 

intervene in troubled regions in the 

ECOWAS sub-region and to restore 

peace and security in the region. 

 

The ECOMOG was sent to Liberia and 

Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Manu 

River Union (MRU) region The 

ECOMOG has successfully brought 

peace to Liberia by intervening in the 

nation’s political crises. It. has also been 

able to restore peace in Sierra Leone and 

on 1,5 May 2001 met in Freetown, the 

Sierra Leonian capital to fashion out a 

time table for the implementation of the 

Disarmament, Demobilization and 

Reintegration (DDR) programe of the 

country’s peace plan (ECOWAS, 2001, 

p.45). 

 

The ECOWAS has also established an 

Ambassador of Mediation and Security 

Council (AMSC) as the principal organ 

for the resolution and prevention of 

conflicts in the sub-region (ECOWAS, 

2001, p.58). The council which operates 

at three levels- Heads of State and 

Governments; Ministers, and 

Ambassadors is made up of Benin, Cote 

d’Voire, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, 

Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. 

 

Besides the AMSC, the ECOWAS has 

set up a committee of three presidents 

comprising Presidents Alpha Konare of 

Mali, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and 

Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo to 

facilitate the resolution of the crisis 

within the Mano River States of Guinea, 

Liberia and Sierra Leone (ECOWAS, 

2001, p.37). And the French Foreign 

Affairs Minister in his visit to Nigeria on 

28 June 2001 promised French 

assistance and support for the ECOWAS 

integration and peace- keeping efforts 

especially in its effort to restore peace 

and security in the Mano River Union 

states (ECOWAS, 2001, p.60) 

(ECOWAS, 2001, p.02) and the 

ECOWAS Heads of State and 



 

 

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The Role of Regional Economic and Political Groups in the Globalization Process: A Case Study of the 

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

Government has been holding extra-

ordinary meetings to discuss the political 

and security issues affecting the sub-

region (ECOWAS, 2001, p.36, 17, 58, 

45) 

 

These peace efforts are necessary to 

usher in civil societies in the region as 

these are very important to successful 

regional integration and the 

globalization process (ECOWAS, 2001, 

p.48) As the ECOWAS Executive 

Secretary Lansana Konyate remarked, 

African leaders must take the civil 

society along if the integration is to be 

achieved on the continent. 

 

2.3 ECOWAS and the Provision of 

Efficient Financial Clearance and 

Settlement System in the ECOWAS 

Sub-Region 

The ECOWAS has done a lot to 

facilitate an efficient clearance and 

settlement system for all financial 

obligations within the sub-region, and 

with non- members. It has introduced a 

travelers’ cheque for the region, and 

established the West African Monetary 

Institute (WAMI). The WAMI is 

charged with the duty of establishment 

of the West African Central Bank 

(WACB) that would commence 

operation in 2003. The WAMI is 

therefore a transitional institution and is 

made up of the non-CFA France 

ECOWAS member states—the Gambia, 

Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra 

Leona (ECOWAS, 2001, p.06) 

(ECOWAS, 2001, p.64). And the various 

central bank governors have been 

meeting for the effective take off of the 

West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) 

(ECOWAS, 2001, p.66). Recently, the 

WACB invited entries for the name to be 

given the currency of the WAMZ. And 

to facilitate the smooth take off of the 

WAMZ the International Monetary 

Fund (IMF) has pledged to assist the 

ECOWAS (ECOWAS, 2001, p.43). 

When the West African Monetary Zone 

(WAMZ) becomes fully operative, it 

would facilitate all financial transactions 

in the region, and between the region 

and other regional blocs; and non- 

ECOWAS members. 

 

2.4 ECOWAS and Negotiation of 

Trade and Investment Deals for the 

ECOWAS Sub-Region 

The globalization process involves free 

trade and investment across national 

boundaries. The various regional 

economic blocs want their sub-regions 

to be centers for the globalization 

process, to attract funds and investments 

away from all other regions into their 

regions. Thus the regional groups have 

become power houses for the 

negotiation of trade and investment into 

the regions. The European Union (EU) 

has been able to negotiate trade and 

investment deals with the African, 

Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, 

through the Lome Conventions. Has the 

ECOWAS been able to do this for its 

members? The answer is not in the 

negative. 

 

The ECOWAS has been able to discuss 

with the MERCOSUR—an economic 

group of Latin America comprising 

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, 



 

 

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Bolivia and Chile (ECOWAS, 2001). 

The ECOWAS and MERCOSUR met 

on 17 May 2001 and agreed on areas of 

cooperation. As the executive secretary 

of the ECOWAS Lansana Konyate 

observed, the south—south cooperation 

was necessary before their incorporation 

into the global economy. 

 

The ECOWAS has also held several 

meetings and negotiations with the 

World Bank. And in one of such 

meetings, the World Bank Vice 

President for Africa Callisto Madavo 

said that the World Bank will continue 

to provide support for regional projects 

such as the West African Gas Pipeline 

for producing clean energy, and 

developing the sub-regions 

infrastructure and human resources. 

The World Bank has been of great help 

to the ECOWAS in the harmonization of 

economic and financial policies of the 

sub-region and in the implementation of 

the libralization of the air transport 

sector of the West African sub-region 

and the power pool programme. The 

World Bank is also expected to finance 

the construction of the 330 mkv 

transmission line linking Nigeria and 

Ghana (ECOWAS, 2001, p.50). 

 

ECOWAS has also successfully 

negotiated the financing of the 

ECOWAS Statistical Development 

Programme (ECOSTAT) with the IMF. 

The agreement was signed on 9 March 

2001 in Abuja. The ECOSTAT will help 

in the formulation of a strategy on 

statistical development and provide for a 

common statistical framework for the 

surveillance mechanism in the sub-

region, improve quality of external trade 

statistics, strengthen ECOWAS’ 

institutional capacity, as well as improve 

the coherence between the ECOWAS 

and the Economic Union of West Africa 

(UEMOA). 

 

Specific activities, systems, preparation 

and adoption of a harmonized 

framework of national accounts, 

harmonization and the production of 

consumer price index; as well as data 

collection and dissemination of external 

trade statistics (ECOWAS, 2000, p.23). 

 

And the ECOWAS has signed a 

cooperation agreement with the 

International Committee of the Red 

Cross (ICRC) under which both are to 

cooperate in eight specific areas in 

furtherance of their common interests 

(ECOWAS, 2000, p.16). Similar 

agreement has been signed with the 

Food and Agricultural Organisation 

(FAO). The FAO pledged to work with 

the ECOWAS towards harmonizing 

legislations and regulations, coordinate 

and integrate institutions dealing with 

agricultural matters; and cooperate to get 

financial assistance to implement 

common programs and fight hunger as 

food security is very important if the 

ECOWAS has to maintain a stable 

political climate (ECOWAS, 2000, 

p.40). 

 

3. CONSTRAINTS ON ECOWAS 

AS A VEHICLE IN THE 

GLOBALIZATION PROCESS 

Though the globalization process after 



 

 

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increasing promises of economic growth 

and development, it imposes a great deal 

of challenges to the regional integration 

especially the integration in the less 

developed regions of the world. Of 

particular importance is the ECOWAS 

region. There is no doubt that this part of 

the world stands in a weak position to 

benefit from the globalization process as 

a result of a number of factors peculiar 

to the sub-region: 

 Poverty and foreign debt burden 

endemic in the region 

 Inferior levels of technological 

development as reflected in the 

low level of industrial output and 

reliance on imports from other 

sub-regions 

 Volatility of the financial markets 

which raise the problems of 

stability of the financial system in 

general and capital flight in 

particular. 

 Ethnic crises which often result into 

full scale national and international 

crises in the region which if 

checked at the onset would not 

have been problems. 

 The absence of multinational of 

West African origin. 

 Absence of good governance, and 

the supportive democratic ideals, 

poverty, ethnic wars, political 

crises of West African region. 

 

The ECOWAS sub region is poor 

compared with other regional groups. 

This poverty has prevented the nationals 

of sub-region to establish and 

successfully manage multi-national 

corporations capable of exploiting the 

opportunities provided by the 

globalization process. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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Of the known one thousand multinationals (Global 1000), none is of West African origin 

(Business Week, 1991). A country by country categorization of the multinationals as at 

1991 appeared thus: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Global 1000 ranking excludes 

companies from countries where stock 

markets are largely closed to foreign 

investors and where major corporations 

are often privately owned. Many of these 

companies are significant global 

competitors and the list below includes 

those companies where the annual 

revenues for most of the years are a little 

above one billion (US) dollars. They are: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Country No of multinationals 
Australia 15 
Austria 3 

Belgium 10 

Britain 94 

Canada 25 

Denmark 6 

Finland 1 

France 20 

Germany 39 

Hong Kong 15 

Ireland 1 

Italy 19 

Japan 309 

Malaysia 2 

Nether lands 13 

New Zealand 1 

Norway 1 

Singapore 4 

South Africa 6 

Spain 13 

Sweden 17 

Switzerland 11 

USA 359 

Source: Business Week, 1991.  

 



 

 

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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is clear that none of these 1000 global 

companies is of West African origin. 

Only six are from South Africa and had 

been established during the apartheid 

rule in South Africa by the African 

Europeans. If the West African sub 

region has multinationals with solid 

asset bases, the ECOWAS should have 

been of great asset to them in competing 

globally with those of other sub regions. 

 

The problem of the ECOWAS as an 

institution is therefore inability to 

support and motivate local entrepreneurs 

in the sub region to either individually or 

jointly establish global companies that 

would exploit the opportunities provided 

by the globalization process. Rather it 

encourages foreign investors to come 

into the ECOWAS sub region to invest 

without devising ways of encouraging 

our local investors to invest abroad 

through multinationals of West African 

origin. One expects that the ECOWAS 

as an institution should negotiate with 

the developed nations for debt 

cancellation of the debts of the West 

African nations: negotiate better pricing 

deals for the products from the region at 

the international market, especially the 

price of cocoa beans; campaign for an 

end to the illegal exploitation of the 

resources of the sub-region by foreign 

nationals; wade into ethnic and national 

political crises before they become full 

blown conflicts as wars are threats to 

trade and investment; and create 

institutions that would encourage the 

nationals of the sub- regions to actively 

get involved in the economic process of 

not just the members but of none 

member nations. The inability of the 

ECOWAS as an institution to do this has 

resulted to the poor capital formation for 

the government and nationals of the 

region thereby resulting in the inability 

of the nationals of the region to actively 

participate and benefit from the 

globalization process. The deregulation 

and privatisation of government owned 

companies within the sub-region is 

mainly for the wealthy foreign investors. 

Only very few nationals of the various 

countries in the sub-region are actively 

involved in the exercise due to poverty 

 

4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

The globalization process has come to 

foster trade and investment world-wide 

and to help break down the barriers 

against free trade and investments 

globally by making the regional blocs 

the spring boards for the integration of 

their regions with the global economy. 

And each regional bloc competes with 

one another for excellence in this regard. 

The regional economic blocs have thus 

become vehicles in the globalization 

Country Number of multinationals 

South Korea     37 
Taiwan 10 

Mexico 7 

Brazil 3 

Sources: Business Week, 1991. 

 

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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (1982-2002) 

Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

process. In regions where political and 

or security groups are available as the 

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 

(NATO) they are used for the 

maintenance of peace and security in the 

region as this is vital for trade and 

investments. Where they are lacking, the 

regional economic groups make 

provisions for their emergence as the 

ECOWAS and the South African 

Development Commission (SADC) 

have done. 

 

From the discussion above, it is evident 

that the ECOWAS as a regional 

economic and political group is a vehicle 

in the globalization process. It has 

helped the nations within the sub-region 

to provide basic infrastructure needed 

for the development of the sub-region. 

These infrastructural facilities are 

necessary for the globalization process. 

It has also been able to negotiate with 

other regional blocs and international 

financial organizations in funding some 

of the investments in the region. 

 

The ECOWAS has worked hard to 

maintain peace and security in the sub-

region through its military outfit- the 

ECOMOG. And the ECOMOG has been 

endorsed by the United Nations Security 

Council (UNSC) as a regional security 

organization in the ECOWAS sub region 

and lends its support to the ECOMOG 

operations in the region. Peace and 

security are very essential for trade and 

investment worldwide. 

 

The ECOWAS has established efficient 

clearance and settlement system for all 

forms of financial transactions between 

the ECOWAS members, and between 

the ECOWAS and other regional blocs 

or non- member states through the 

establishment of the WACB, WAMZ 

and a host of other measures designed to 

facilitate financial transactions in the 

region. 

 

The regional bloc has also been able to 

enter into negotiations with other 

international agencies to attract funds for 

investment in the region on behalf of the 

ECOWAS members. However, the 

ECOWAS as a regional economic group 

has not been able to influence 

investment by the nationals of the 

ECOWAS region in other nations due to 

the poverty level in the region and the 

underdeveloped nature of the region 

unlike other regional blocs. “The young 

nature of the ECOWAS may have also 

contributed to this failure. The 

ECOWAS is the youngest regional 

economic bloc.” 

 

Finally, the ECOWAS has not been able 

to influence investment by nationals of 

the sub-region in other regions because 

of the absence of multinationals of West 

African origin. Of the one thousand 

multinational corporations known 

worldwide, only about five are of 

African origin and none is of West 

African origin. 

 

The poverty endemic to the West 

African sub-region are traceable to 

heavy debt burden of the nations in the 

region, low commodity pricing of their 

products, lack of access market for some 

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of the products from the sub-region, 

adverse weather conditions, ethnic wars 

and political crises; capital flight and 

irresponsible political leadership. 

Besides these shortcomings, one can 

rightly say that the ECOWAS as a 

regional economic and political group is 

indeed a vehicle in the globalization 

process 

 

5. RECOMMENDATIONS 

For the ECOWAS to perform creditably 

well as an agent in the globalization 

process there is the need for the regional 

bloc to address the issue of poverty in the 

region and the issue of foreign debt 

burden. These could be done by ensuring 

that the various national governments 

devote at least 30% of their national 

budget to education, as education is the 

easiest way of eradicating poverty in a 

region. This will also help to produce the 

needed manpower for the globalization 

process especially in the production of 

skilled manpower in science and 

technology. And the foreign debt burden 

can be addressed by the ECOWAS as a 

regional bloc by asking that the creditor 

nations cancel the debts of the West 

African nations as this creates untold 

hardship to the peoples of the region. 

 

The problems of inferior levels of 

technological development in the West 

African sub-region can be addresses by 

the ECOWAS by insisting that the 

developed nations and foreign investors 

interested in investing in the ECOWAS 

sub-region relocate some of their 

manufacturing plants from Europe and 

America to the West African subregion. 

A situation where the relocation is 

within Europe, America, Asia and Latin- 

America only leaves the West African 

sub-region permanently as produce of 

basic industrial raw materials and not 

processor and producer of finished 

products unless the situation is reversed 

the west Africa sub- region will not 

benefit from the globalization process 

and the attendant acquisition of 

technology. 

 

The problem of the volatility of the 

financial market with its attendant 

problem of financial instability in’ the 

West Africa sub-region can be addressed 

by the ECOWAS by adopting a political 

solution to the financial problems of the 

region. The exchange rate for the West 

Africa nations’ currencies should not be 

left to the market forces of demand and 

supply only. Europe and America have 

always determined the exchange rate of 

their currencies by political means. 

Turns and twists in political events in 

Europe, Asia and America are followed 

by changes in the exchange values of 

their currencies. Only those of West 

African nations are allowed to be 

determined by market forces outside 

West Africa. Thus Europe, Asia and 

America would always insist that the 

ECOWAS states devalue their 

currencies as a condition for direct 

foreign investment in the region. If the 

ECOWAS states should revalue their 

currencies in such a way that they are as 

strong as the dollar or pound, Europe 

and America would not invest in West 

Africa, and our politicians who 

deposited their funds in Europe and 

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Akwara, Azalahu F.; Ezirim, Gerald E.; Udaw, Joseph E.; Akwara, Ngozi F. 

 

American may be tempted to return their 

loots to the West African sub region. 

The ECOWAS needs it take a political 

approach to the financial market 

problems of the region. 

 

Ethnic crises and wars which have torn 

the West African sub-region apart are 

instigated by foreigners who want to 

create markets for their weapons and 

foreign businessmen who want to 

exploit the natural resources of the 

region illegally and forcefully. They 

always find ready indigenous 

collaborators to arm so as to start ethnic 

crises and create the opportunity for 

them to come into the region to exploit 

the natural resources. 

 

The ECOWAS through the ECOMOG 

should wade into national crises at their 

inception and nip such crises in the bud 

and liaise with the United Nations to set 

up an agency that can prevent the illegal 

exploitation and exportation of mineral 

resources from war torn nations within 

the ECOWAS region. 

 

The ECOWAS should also call on 

national governments to adopt policies 

that would engender democracy in the 

ECOWAS region. Some of the ethnic 

crises are results of domestic political 

repression, exclusion from the political 

process and inequitable allocation of 

national resources. 

 

Finally, the ECOWAS should encourage 

local investors in the region to pool their 

resources together and jointly establish 

multinationals corporations that can 

compete favorably within and outside 

the region with foreign multinational. 

The multinational corporations are the 

most active actors or participants in the 

globalization process. No nation can 

benefit tremendously from the process if 

it has no multinational corporations of 

its own origin. 

 

 

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