ECOWAS Monetary Union Agenda and Regional Integration Policies: Applicable Theories, Supervision and Challenges

Abstract

The idea of Regional integration can be traceable to the evolvement of the international trade relations in the post-war period, linked regionalism, while regionalism itself can be understood through two different historical perspectives. The first occurred in 1951 and1957 with European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the second with European Economic Community. This two served as forerunners of the European Union. Thus, in the developing world, especially in Latin America and Africa, there was adoption of import-substituting regional integration as the means to effect inward-looking growth. Most of the developing country schemes initiated at this time eventually became moribund or even collapsed, while the growing momentum of multilateral liberalization in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to the decline in the importance attached to regionalism, while the second is traceable to the second half of the 1980s. Thus, under the impetus of the European cooperation, the 1960s wave of regionalism reached Africa with the founding of the Central African Customs Union in 1964, Latin America via the Central American Common Market in 1960 and the Andean Pact in 1969. In Asia, ASEAN was launched in 1967. However, the idea of regional integration in West Africa (even though accompanied with some form of politics) is aimed at bringing economic unity in trade, commerce and development. It is also aimed at limiting or even eliminating all trade barriers in the region and promoting socio-economic development of member states. ECOWAS as a sub-regional organisation was launched through the Treaty of Lagos in 1975, with the primary goals of promoting regional trade, economic cooperation and self-reliance in the sub-region. To accelerate integration, a revised ECOWAS Treaty was signed in 1993. Its aspirations are basically channelled towards a common market and a single currency among member states. This essay tend look at ECOWAS regional integration and single currency agenda and assess its successes, and supervision, challenges and applicable theories for continued achievement.