Kini Nsom
29 September 2008
analysis
Despite its rich natural and human potentials, the 11 countries of the Economic Community of Central Africa States, ECCAS, are still stricken by poverty, conflicts, poor management of resources, governance and underdevelopment.
The sub-region is made up of Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Burundi, Rwanda, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic, Angola Soa Tome and Principe and Gabon.
While creating ECCAS in 1983, the vision of the leaders as they signed the economic agreement was to ensure economic integration by harmonising trade policies in the different countries of the sub-region.
According to statistics, the ECCAS countries are rich in natural resources such as petrol, cobalt, diamond and gold. Its agricultural potentials are also enormous.A senior economist and researcher, Bernard Mamat, says it is a paradox that a region rich in such wonderful potentials should be wallowing in poverty.
During the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung's third Edition of the Autumn Academy that brought together economic journalists of the ECCAS region to a conference in Douala last week, it was diagnosed that the economies of the various countries were nothing but ailing.
Cameroon that walks tall as the leader in ECCAS region has continued to make do with limping economy. For years, the country's growth rate has remained stunted in the vicinity of four percent.
World Bank estimates indicate that the ECCAS region needs circa FCFA 300,300 billion to construct roads that will link all the capitals of the eleven countries of the region.The lack of money and the political will to construct these roads have made inter-communal exchanges between the various countries a nightmare.
Egoism and rivalry among the leaders of the region have also continued to make matters worse.The quality and quantity of infrastructure in the area are also insufficient. There is the problem of poor roads and telecommunication network and poor air transport.
What equally stalls economic growth is the fact that energy supply, especially electrical energy, falls far below demand. The poor banking system in the region does not sufficiently promote local business initiatives.
Roadblocks To Integration
There are many road blocks to integration. However, the construction of the road linking Rwandan capital Kigali to that of Burundi, Bujumbura is laudable.The Yaounde-Libreville highway has advanced, but trade between Cameroon and Gabon remain a real nightmare to business people.
A Cameroonian business woman told The Post that she has been trading in foodstuff in Gabon for many years, but each time, she is harassed by Gabonese gendarmes who extort money from her. Besides, the xenophobic nature of some elements in the sub-region; parochial interests and national sovereignty have been stumbling blocks to genuine integration.
Although the Equato-Guinean government has severally denied allegations of xenophobia against Cameroonians, it is reported that citizens of that country have continued to chase away strangers with impunity.
It is thanks to the lack of integration that countries of the sub-region have not been able to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA, with the European Union as a united front. Cameroon and a two other countries signed the interim agreement in December 2007.
But the neighbouring Central Africa Republic did not sign an account of the claim from the agreement because the country has little to export. This is a clear case of dissenting voices.
Integration in the sub-region can only work if its leaders show more political will, ward off tariffs, allow free movement of goods and persons across the boundaries and develop road infrastructure.
The leaders should emulate what is happening in the ECOWAS (West African Sub Region).
If nothing is done, the ECCAS region will not meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, MDGs that are expected to ameliorate the plight of humanity by 2015.
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