COVID-19 and terrorist attacks slow down development in the ECOWAS region

The President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Jean Claude Kassi Brou, presented the State of the Community Report to the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja on Wednesday, 1 December 2021. 

The report points out that the persistence of COVID-19 and terrorist attacks remain the main shocks hampering integration and economic development in the region, remarked the President of the Commission.

The health and security situation, although not catastrophic compared to other parts of the world, is not satisfactory either, especially as its impact is most damaging to the economy and the regional integration process. Mr Brou pointed out that these two shocks have wiped out growth, increase inflation, raise government budget deficits and public debt.

In addition, health and security threats have led to the closure of member states’ borders, restricted free movement of people and goods and lowered the prices of export products.

Besides these economic problems, post-electoral tensions and the Malian and Guinean crises are also to be noted among the centrifugal factors of regional stability.

However, according to Mr. Kassi Brou, ECOWAS member countries have enough resources to bounce back and move forward in the integration process with the “ECOWAS Vision 2050”, an action plan designed following an inclusive and consultative process of the main political and civil society actors.