Although blessed with a number of assets such as oil, a large agricultural sector, mineral deposits, and emerging democracies, West African states face a variety of barriers to economic growth. Some of these barriers include small markets, Nigeria excepted, poor physical infrastructure, and minimal foreign direct investment. Additional regional challenges include weak regional institutions, barriers and policies that impede trade between states, uncoordinated fiscal and monetary policies, and the absence of a sustainable and competitively priced supply of energy.

West Africa’s overall economic growth is stunted by the limited economic activity and trade between West African states, and between West African states and the rest of the world. Increasing the economic integration among West African countries can contribute to the economic growth and prosperity of all countries by expanding the size of potential markets, reducing the cost of doing business, and promoting economic stability.

WARP’s Regional Economic Integration Program contributes to the development of a prosperous West Africa through supporting economic activities that transcend national boundaries. Program activities are geared towards contributing to Regional Economic Integration by achieving the following strategic results:

1. Reduced barriers to trade
2. Improved public services supporting trade

USAID/WARP measures the extent to which it is achieving the above by tracking:

• Levels of West African global trade
• The value of AGOA exports from West Africa to the U.S.
• The value of trade in select products in certain countries
• Rates of Transnational energy sales
• Market information for the private sector
• Policy reform processes

The principal program activities supported by the Regional Economic Integration Program include:

The WAIBL project provides match-making services between West African and North American businesses. The project also facilitates the financing of business opportunities by connecting West African businesses to commercial banks and relevant U.S. Government entities, such as the Export-Import Bank. The WAIBL project began in 1998 and has supported over $145 million of transactions to date in the agriculture, shea buttter, textile, infrastructure, information technology, jewelry, and finance sectors. For further information, click here.

The West African Trade Hub opened in 2003 covering 20 countries in the region. The objective of WATH, headquartered in Accra, Ghana, is to encourage West African businesses to take advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and to develop capacity for better engagement in the multilateral trading system as embodied by the World Trade Organization. The Hub also provides assistance to regional inter-governmental organizations and national ministries on a variety of trade-related issues. For further information, click here.

The ECOTRADE project assists the 15-country Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) complete its Common External Tariff (CET). A Common External Tariff implies that all goods entering into the customs territory of any ECOWAS country will be assessed at the same rate of customs duty thereby facilitating closer economic integration and increased trade. For further information, click here.

The ECOGEE project supports West African women’s efforts to overcome barriers to business development and regional trade. Established in September 2002, ECOGEE is a partnership among programs such as the West African International Business Linkages program (WAIBL) and the West African Businesswomens' Network (WABNET). WABNET is a network of businesswomen who collaborate to promote regional trade and the growth of their enterprises that was created in 2001 at an USAID/WARP-sponsored workshop. WARP supports WABNET through organizational development assistance provided by the ECOGEE project. For further information, click here.

The MISTOWA project aims to increase regional agricultural trade and food security by improving and linking the existing regional efforts to generate, disseminate, and make commercial use of market information. It will also help regional market information systems (MIS) and trade partners to address other constraints, so that strong and dynamic commodity chains emerge. These will use the information to enhance production, handling, credit, trade and value-added services such as processing, packaging, and quality control. Effective MIS and Traders' Organizations will also heighten farmer awareness of opportunities and technologies to increase production, and will facilitate the demand-pull for higher value and quality agricultural products. For further information, click here.

The Regional Economic Integration program supports the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) with technical assistance and training in order to strengthen the institution’s capacity so it can fully participate in the development of a second common currency in the ECOWAS region. Technical assistance provided to WAMI under this project includes developing a transfer payment system to facilitate monetary exchanges, designing data collection and dissemination standards, harmonizing statistics and analyzing financial flows in the region. For further information, click here.