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· Finance Ministers in the ECOWAS region recently held their Sixth Meeting in Accra, Ghana, to deliberate on the Community Levy for consolidating region’s Customs Union.
· Mali and Guinea did not have any representative at the meeting since they were suspended from the regional body over military coup d’etat
· The rest of the 13 members participated at the meeting. The ECOWAS has a total strength of 15
Finance Ministers in the ECOWAS region recently held their Sixth Meeting in Accra, Ghana, to deliberate on the Community Levy for consolidating the region’s Customs Union.
Mali and Guinea did not have any representative at the meeting since they were suspended from the regional body over military coup d’etat. The rest of the 13 members participated at the meeting. The ECOWAS has a total strength of 15.
The meeting examined and approved the various community legislation aimed at enhancing the intensity of intra- trade and investment as well as move towards consolidating the ECOWAS Customs union.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, said that ECOWAS member states needed to establish a stronger economic space, to help diversify production and reduce the dependence on the export of a few primary commodities. This will help improve economic growth rates, create employment and raise living standards of the people. He also underscored greater cooperation among the member countries’ to help each other realize their growth potential. He added that the implementation of the Community Levy and the Consolidation of the ECOWAS Customs Union would make the sub-region an economic power
Head of European Union Delegation to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, who was present at the meeting assured ECOWAS of the EU’s readiness to deepen its cooperation with the region. The ECOWAS region, he said, was the most advanced in the whole of Africa especially for trade liberalization including free movement, common passport and common external tariffs.
