Lagos - Nigeria — The 2nd ECOWAS Investment Forum has ended in Lagos with the participants calling on Member States to undertake reforms towards improving their business climate, reducing risks and boosting investor confidence.
Member States were also urged to domesticate all ECOWAS policies and protocols related to investment promotion. As part of its eight-point recommendation, the two-day Forum opened by the Chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government and President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday, 15th September 2011, noted that since private sector investment was needed to drive development, the reforms were necessary to attract investors willing to take advantage of the huge potentials that abound in sub-Saharan Africa.
"In order to tap into the pool of investible funds with the region, ECOWAS should fast-track its work on establishing a regional capital market", the Forum affirmed, adding that ECOWAS should also spearhead the establishment of a specialized bank that should be entirely private sector-driven. Development planners of ECOWAS Member States were also urged to take measures to integrate the large informal sector operations into the formal sector. To curb the mass exodus of youth from the region due to increasing rate of unemployment, and to encourage brain gain, they also proposed that ECOWAS should set up an Enterprise Fund to provide unconditional loans and guarantees to budding entrepreneurs of the region.
The Forum further recommended that the implementation of regional credit risk database and cross-border payments system being implemented by ECOWAS and the West African Bankers Association (WABA) should be given priority attention.
In his closing remarks, Professor Lambert Bamba, ECOWAS Commissioner for Macro- Economic Policy, said the region had a number of investment success stories that should be replicated by other countries. He urged Member States to set up mechanisms for the effective implementation of identified development projects in collaboration with technical and financial partners. Opening the well-attended Forum on behalf of President Jonathan, Vice- President Namadi Sambo, had called on ECOWAS Member States to facilitate regional economic integration through the pursuit of policies that would promote the realization of the Common Market initiative encapsulated in the organization's Vision 2020 project. "ECOWAS is a market to reckon with in any multilateral discussion", he said, adding that West Africa has the potential to become "an economic union sooner than expected".
In his keynote address, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, enumerated factors that make West Africa, the preferred investors' destination. These include low risk profile, abundant natural resources, strong labour force, above average return on investment, emerging stable and democratic Members pursuing the values of transparency and accountability.
Participants at the forum included public and private sector actors and representatives of multilateral financial institutions from within and outside the ECOWAS region. Organized by the ECOWAS Commission in collaboration with the Investment Promotion Agencies of West Africa (IPAWAS) and WABA, the Forum sought to harmonize the platform for investment promotion in the region and access to the synergy of cooperation.
The other objectives included promoting investment across the region and providing a platform for the sharing of experiences among investment promotion agencies in Member States, showcasing the ECOWAS investment climate to the world, and providing a window for vertical and horizontal integration of private sector activities.
The first ECOWAS Investment Forum held in Brussels, Belgium in 2010, drew investors and other stakeholders from across the globe and generated a great interest around the investment potentialities in West Africa.
