Economic Community of West African States · ECOWAS
The 15-member West African regional bloc — anchored by Nigeria, with a long-running single-currency project (the ECO) and a turbulent post-2020 political moment.
Mandate
Established 1975 by the Treaty of Lagos, revised 1993. 15 member states: Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo (plus Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger — currently in withdrawal proceedings after a 2024 announcement to leave). Headquartered in Abuja. Mandate: regional economic integration; free movement of goods, capital, and people; eventual single currency.
How it works
Authority of Heads of State (supreme), Council of Ministers, ECOWAS Commission (the secretariat), ECOWAS Parliament, ECOWAS Court of Justice. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) is the development-finance arm. The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) is the free-trade framework. ECOMOG / ECOWAS Standby Force has intervened in regional conflicts (Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia 2017).
Why it matters
ECOWAS is the test case for African monetary integration. The ECO single currency has been promised since 1983 and slipped repeatedly; the 2020 launch date came and went. The 2024 announcement by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger (the Alliance of Sahel States) to withdraw is the largest crisis in ECOWAS history and a leading indicator for how durable African regional integration actually is. For Kenya, ECOWAS dynamics matter mostly through AfCFTA implementation — the largest African market by population (Nigeria) sits inside it.
What to watch
ECOWAS Summit communiqués, status of the Alliance of Sahel States withdrawal, ECO single-currency timelines, ETLS enforcement disputes, ECOMOG / ECOWAS Standby Force deployments.
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