The West Africa Brief is published by the Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD). It presents political, economic and social developments in the region. Special focus is given to news regarding regional organisations (ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS) as well other SWAC Members’ activities. The articles should not be reported as representing the offi cial views of the OECD or of its member countries. Contact: julia.wanjiru@oecd.org

WEST AFRICA BRIEFwww.west-africa-brief.org

www.west-africa-brief.org ClubSAHEL ANDWEST AFRICA

Secretariat

No. 279, 28 June - 14 July 2019

▷ West Africa in the African Continental Free Trade Area ▷ ECOWAS summit focuses on security issues ▷ Swiss Africa Business Innovation Initiative ▷ Abuja roundtable on transnational security issues ▷ Must read: Co-operating across borders: Tackling illicit flows ▷ Must read: Sahel: Fighting inequality to respond to development and security challenges ▷ Opinion: The AfCFTA is laudable, but its imminent benefits are overstated ▷ Maps & Facts: The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) ▷ Who’s who: Germaine Acogny, mother of African contemporary dance

WEST AFRICA IN THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA

African leaders launched the operational phase of the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at the 12th Extraordinary African Union Summit on 7 July in Niamey, Niger. The 54-nation trade bloc is set to become the biggest integrated market worldwide, uniting some 2.5 billion people by 2050. Members have committed to eliminate tariffs on most goods, which is expected to increase trade in the region by 15-25% in the medium term. The African Union’s goal is to make the free-trade area instruments operational by July 2020. To date, 27 countries have ratified the AfCFTA instruments. The official launch of the new AfCFTA at the Niamey summit is a diplomatic success for Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, a designated “AfCFTA Champion.” Niger is in the spotlight, illustrating its capacity to host some 3 000 delegates and experts from across the continent. More than 30 heads of state and government participated in the event. Ghana has been chosen to host AfCFTA’s permanent secretariat, placing the country at the

heart of the continental integration process. Nigeria – along with Benin – eventually signed the AfCFTA agreement a few hours ahead of the summit. The Nigerian government was for a long time reluctant to support regional trade liberalisation and faced domestic opposition. Some Nigerian officials expressed concern that the country could be flooded with low-priced goods, which would impede the development of local manufacturing and farming. As the continent’s largest economy, Nigeria’s participation in the free trade area is critical for its success. The AfCTA agreement acknowledges existing regional economic communities “as building blocs towards the establishment of AfCFTA”. Within the ECOWAS area, AfCFTA will add an additional layer to existing regional trade agreements. The ECOWAS area has the largest number of legal agreements, including the ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons and Goods (1978) and the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS - 1979), the main operational tool for promoting West Africa as a free trade area. However, in practice, it has been challenging to implement these agreements. AfCFTA will mainly change the relationship between ECOWAS countries and non-member countries. In line with the aspirations of Agenda 2063, the role of AfCFTA is to liberalise trade among all African countries. According to current estimates, intra-regional trade in Africa accounted for only 17% of exports in 2017 versus 59% in Asia and 69% in Europe. However, official statistics fail to account for the true extent of regional markets and these figures do not reflect the large amount of informal trade within Africa. AfCFTA is an opportunity to deepen economic integration beyond West Africa.

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ECOWAS SUMMIT FOCUSES ON SECURITY ISSUES

SWISS AFRICA BUSINESS INNOVATION INITIATIVE

ABUJA ROUNDTABLE ON TRANSNATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES As part of its transnational security series, the Munich Security Council organised a roundtable debate on the eve of the ECOWAS summit on 28 June in Abuja. The event brought together high-level government representatives, security experts and business leaders from across the region. Participants discussed new ways to co-operate and counter illicit flows and other transnational crimes. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria and President Christian Roch Kaboré of Burkina Faso introduced the debate. “The porous nature of our borders is a major challenge to our region. In this context, we will continue to count on the support of our international partners for new technologies to effectively police our borders,” declared President Buhari in his opening address. “We have taken important steps to address some of our security concerns through improved political governance as contained in

ECOWAS leaders gathered at the 55th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government on 29 June in Abuja, Nigeria. Taking stock of 44 years of co-operation, they committed to consolidating the region’s integration. However, security challenges continue to undermine West Africa’s integration efforts. “We are all witness to the recurring incidents of inter-communal clashes, herder-farmer conflicts, banditry and terrorists attacks in all our countries”, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari declared while calling upon other heads of state “to act collectively in order to end the menace by adopting a

common strategy both at the national and regional levels.” Mohammed Ibn Chambas, special representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of UNOWAS, urged the West African leaders to enhance “quantitative and qualitative participation of the youth, women and persons living with disabilities in elective and decision-making positions. […] This will make the growing democracies more inclusive and meaningful,” he said. In the field of peace, security and stability, West African leaders firmly condemned terrorist attacks and inter-community violence, including clashes related to seasonal migration. They also reviewed the political situation in Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Togo. They welcomed the newly launched “Accra Initiative,” which promotes joint operational co-operation in the fight against terrorism between Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo. Niger’s President Issoufou Mahamadou was appointed as new chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and government for a one-year term, taking over from President Buhari. An ECOWAS extraordinary summit will be held on 14 September 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to better co-ordinate the fight against terrorism. The next ordinary session is scheduled to take place on 21 December 2019 in Abuja.

The Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research has launched an initiative to support entrepreneurs and start-up companies active in the fields of mobile health, pharmacometrics, innovative financing or digital humanities (knowledge transfer) in sub-Saharan Africa. More particularly, the Swiss Africa Business Innovation Initiative (SABII) aims to boost the entrepreneurial know-how and exposure of sub-Saharan graduate students. Selected candidates will be invited to participate in a three-day workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 25-27 October 2019. The workshop will include

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modules on business plan development and funding mechanisms and candidates will receive individual coaching sessions. Eight candidates will be selected to participate in an entrepreneurial development week in Switzerland, which is scheduled to take place in the spring of 2020. The initiative is implemented in collaboration with AfriLabs, the largest network of African technology hubs, the University of Basel and VentureLab, offering capacity-building support for starts-ups in Switzerland and beyond. The deadline to apply is 31 July 2019.

the relevant regional mechanisms of ECOWAS, which I currently have the privilege of chairing,” he added. President Kaboré recalled that West Africa already has a way to make a “collective response,” notably within the G5 Sahel, which aims to combat transnational threats. “This collective response has contributed to strengthening regional co-operation and improving governance mechanisms,” President Kaboré declared. Participants discussed key findings from the transnational security report entitledm “Co-operating Across Borders: Tackling Illicit Flows”, which was officially launched during the event. The SWAC Secretariat participated in the event, along with many high-level participants such as former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Maman Sambo Sidikou, permanent secretary of the G5 Sahel.

SWISS AFRICA BUSINESS INNOVATION INITIATIVE

MUST READ

OPINION THE AFCFTA IS LAUDABLE, BUT ITS IMMINENT BENEFITS ARE OVERSTATED

CO-OPERATING ACROSS BORDERS: TACKLING ILLICIT FLOWS

Launched at the occasion of the transnational security issues roundtable in June, this report provides some examples of transnational illicit flows that endanger global security by funding conflicts and perpetuating instability. It focuses on four key areas of illicit flows: people, goods, money and data. The report sounds the alarm about the main threats posed by illicit flows

This op-ed by Archie Matheson, published on the African Arguments blog, suggests that the intra-African trade benefits of the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will take time and might be much less significant than thought. According to the current schedule, 90% of goods will be liberalised over the course of 5-8 years; 7% of goods will be classed as sensitive and liberalised over 10-13 years; and 3% of goods will be

Oxfam published a new report on rising inequality in the Sahel. Beyond the many security, humanitarian and environmental challenges, the problems in the Sahel have their roots in the inequality and the strong sense of injustice among the region’s people, particularly young people. Combatting inequality in all its forms will require “designing fairer and more equitable policies and modes of governance that align with the needs and aspirations of populations in Sahel countries.”

Transnational Security ReportCooperating Across Borders: Tackling Illicit Flows

MUST READ SAHEL: FIGHTING INEQUALITY TO RESPOND TO DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY CHALLENGES

and identifies possible co-operative approaches to address the issue, building on the ongoing efforts of multilateral and national bodies. The SWAC Secretariat’s “Borders and cities in West Africa” collection is presented in the “Food for Thought” section. The SWAC Secretariat also contributed to the report by creating a map on transnational violence in Africa.

The report offers a series of recommendations in order to reduce inequality and deliver on the SDGs. They notably call upon Sahelian countries to uphold their commitments and allocate at least 20% of their national budgets to education and 15% to health. Moreover, the G5 Sahel should place more emphasis on development and governance. In conclusion, the authors call for strong and co-ordinated responses from all actors beyond the current response, which is mainly focused on security.

www.oxfam.org

Sahel: fighting inequality to respond to development and security challenges

exempt from free trade entirely. The allocation of goods to these different categories has yet to be negotiated. “It is unclear what the impact of AfCFTA will be, and when it will start to be felt,” Archie explains. “Therefore, it is imperative that the project does not detract energy and resources from initiatives that are having more immediate impacts on intra-African trade and economic growth,” he concludes.

WHO’S WHO: GERMAINE ACOGNY, MOTHER OF AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY DANCEThe Senegalese dancer Germaine Acogny is the winner of the 2019 ECOWAS Arts and Literature Award. She was honoured for the “quality and richness of her artistic production recognised in several ECOWAS member states, her contribution to the training of West African

MAPS & FACTSTHE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA (AFCFTA)

youth in choreography and the wide dissemination of her work in her country, the region and the world.” Born in 1944 in Benin, Acogny still performs on the international scene and teaches on all continents. Her career began in the early

African leaders have reached an important milestone in creating a united African market with the launch of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on 7 July 2019 in Niamey, Niger. The 54-nation trade bloc will unite 1.3 billion people and create a USD 3.4 trillion economic bloc. It is the largest trade bloc to be created since the the World Trade Organization was founded in 1995. It is set to become the biggest integrated market worldwide uniting some 2.5 billion people by 2050. The idea was born in January 2012 during the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The AfCFTA agreement was signed on 21 March 2018 at the 10th AU Extraordinary Summit in Kigali, Rwanda. It entered into force on 30 May 2019, one month after the agreement had been ratified by 22 countries. To date, every African country except Eritrea, has signed the agreement; 27 countries have ratified the AfCFTA instruments. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and largest economy,

along with Benin, became the latest African nations to sign on 7 July 2019. Nigeria’s participation is critical for AfCFTA’s success. African leaders would like to make the free-trade zone operational by July 2020, through five instruments: 1) the rules of origin, 2) the online negotiating forum, 3) the monitoring and elimination of non-tariff barriers, 4) a digital payment system, and 5) the African Trade Observatory. Ghana was chosen as host country of the AfCFTA permanent secretariat. By eliminating tariffs on intra-African trade, AfCFTA aims to boost regional trade by 15-25% in the medium term, and strengthen economic growth among African countries. African leaders also hope to gain more bargaining power on all global trade issues. However, African economies will still need to address a large number of operational challenges (i.e. infrastructure, border controls, corruption, trade liberalisation for sensitive commodities, trade in conflict-affected areas, etc.) in order to reap the short and long-term benefits of the newly created free trade area.

Source: Wikipedia

1960s when she participated in the creation of the Simon Siegel school in Paris and received a diploma in physical education and harmonious gymnastics. She then created the first African dance studio in Dakar in 1968. Between 1977-82, she was artistic director of Mudra Afrique school in Dakar, created with the support of Senegalese president Leopold Sedar Senghor. Her first book, “African Dance” was published in 1980. In 2004, she built the famous L’École des Sables offering professional workshops for African dancers and choreographers. Throughout her career, Germaine Acogny received a large number of distinctions and honours. In 2014, Jeune Afrique magazine listed Germaine Acogny as one of the 50 most influential Africans worldwide.

Signed and ratified

Signed in March 2018, not ratified

Signed in July 2018 or later, not ratified

Not signed