AMELIORATION DU CLIMAT DINVESTISSEMENT A TRAVERS LA LIBRE CIRCULATION DES BIENS ET DES PERSONNES EN AFRIQUE DE LOUEST

PRESENTE PAR ROBERTS ORYA PDG DE LA BANQUE DIMPORT ET EXPORT DU NIGERIA (NEXIM) A LA CONFERENCE DE LALLIANCE BORDERLESS 21 -22 FEVRIER 2013

PLAN
INTRODUCTION
ECONOMIES OUEST AFRICAINES ET CLIMAT DINVESTISSEMENT
ET DU CADRE D POLITIQUE DINVESTISSEMENT DANS REGION DE LA CEDEAO TRAVERS LA LIBRE CIRCULATION DE LA

APERCU DU CLIMAT

AMELIORER LE CLIMAT DINVESTISSEMENT A

PROPOSITION CONCLUSION

DE VALEUR VALUE PROPOSITION LE PROJET REGIONAL SEALINK THE REGIONAL SEALINK PROJECT
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1.0 INTRODUCTION ECONOMIES OUESTAFRICAINES ET CLIMAT DINVESTISSEMENT

Les potentiels economiques et dinvestissement de la region de la CEDEAO The economic and investment potentials of the ECOWAS Region can best be appreciated within the context of the following demographic and macro-economic 2011 statistical information gleaned from IMF;

Total population of 308.7 million with an average growth rate

of 2.61%

Total GDP of US$ 368.77 billion and an average consistent

GDP Growth Rate of about 6% in the recent years. In 2010, the regions 6.2% GDP growth was the highest among the five African Regional Economic Communities (RECs)

Average GDP Per Capita of US$1,594 as at 2011 (US$500

US$3,800)

FDI inflow increment from US$11.83 billion in 2010 to US$

16.1 billion in 2011
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2.0 OVERVIEW ON ECOWAS INVESTMENT CLIMATE AND POLICY FRAMEWORK

In order to create an enabling environment to attract investment within the Region, the ECOWAS Commission had introduced commendable tools under its Common Investment market initiatives like the ECOWAS Investment Policy Framework (IPF) that would;

Nurture and facilitate the creation of a healthy business

environment that would be attractive to all investors

Facilitate the pursuance of effective key investment

policy areas such as Investment policy, Investment promotion and facilitation; Trade Policy; Tax policy; Corporate governance, etc
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2.0 OVERVIEW ON ECOWAS INVESTMENT CLIMATE AND POLICY FRAMEWORKContd

On the issue of facilitating free movement of goods,

persons and capital as well as macroeconomic policy convergence, these have progressed slowly, therefore ECOWAS regional members need to enhance their commitments to;

Improvements in the operations and processes of

the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and ECOWAS Road Transit Scheme (ISRT) Invigorate implementation of the macroeconomic policy convergence and policy harmonization
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2.0 OVERVIEW ON ECOWAS INVESTMENT CLIMATE AND POLICY FRAMEWORKContd

On the global perception on the regional profile and investment climate, there are indications as highlighted below that a lot needs to be done to improve the current ranking of ECOWAS;

The 2012 Doing Business indicators from the World

Bank / IFC showed the region ranking averagely at 149 out of 183 on the ease of doing business scale.

The 2012 World Investment & Political Risk Report of

MIGA / World Bank on world investment trends and perspectives indicated that FDI inflows to developing countries are expected to rebound in 2013 to $700 billion 6

 Historically,

3.0 IMPROVING INVESTMENT CLIMATE THROUGH FREE MOVEMENT

between free services with

This has become models for sustainable development Free movement within ECOWAS have been quite an
issue due to transport and logistics challenges. West Africa has the lowest quality of transport services, as measured by the Logistics Performance Index (LPI: 2.19), compared to both other regions in Africa (2.272.73) and the rest of the world (3.01-3.99).
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there are correlations movement of goods, people, and improvement in business environment

with beneficiary countries / regions evolving various policies to continually retain and attract investments.

4.0 VALUE PROPOSITON - THE PROPOSED REGIONAL SEALINK PROJECT Based on the foregoing and the need to improve investment climate and free movement of goods and services, a proposed regional sealink project was conceptualized to ameliorate the following;

High transportation costs and excessive transit time Absence

making intra-regional trade non-competitive and West African transport and logistics costs one of the highest in the World. of dedicated safe and modern fleet to encourage and facilitate Atlantic Short-Sea Trade as well as inadequate transport infrastructure and non tariff measures that are a barrier to increasing intraregional trade and Free movement of persons / goods
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 Highlighted below are the main features of regional trade in

West Africa

4.0 VALUE PROPOSITION - THE PROPOSED REGIONAL SEALINK PROJECTContd

Low level of ECOWAS intra-regional trade at less that 10% Growth of intra-ECOWAS trade volume in the past decade
from 4.7 million tonnes to 13.2 million tonnes without corresponding increase in key infrastructure.

compared to EU 50%, NAFTA 40% and ASEAN 25% respectively

Low level of African container traffic at less than 1% of total

world container traffic of over 400 million containers

Increase in West African Loaded and unloaded dry cargo in

million tonnages from 41.4 and 66.2 in 2009 to 53.8 and 73.2 in 2010 respectively. 9

5.0 CONCLUDING REMARKS

To ensure effective free movement towards improving
investment climate, ECOWAS members should intensify activities on Corridor Management and Border Information Centres to reduce incidences of Non Tariff Measures

Also, the enthusiasm shown by member countries and

the support of the ECOWAS Commission on the Regional Sealink Project should be sustained

ADBs 2011 2015 Regional Integration Strategy Paper

for West Africa (RISP), especially with regards to investment in road corridors, transport and trade facilitation initiatives should be pursued and implemented with strong political will 10 Thank you for your kind attention