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Ministers of Economic Community of West African States,
yesterday in Abuja, called for the emergence of a diversified regional economy
anchored on a competitive manufacturing sector and common regional industrial
policy.

Under the platform of the West Africa Common Industrial Policy
(WACIP), the ministers said the poor economic performance of the region as a
regional economic block is worsened by limitations to its industrial
development, socio-political instability, fiscal, legal and judicial
constraints, underutilisation of installed manufacturing capacities, lack of
competitiveness, infrastructural inadequacies, and lack of access to finance
and small national market.

Linking improved growth rates from 5 to 5.6 percent in the last
two years to the high global demand for commodities, especially the region’s
oil and gas, metals as well as minerals, the ministers noted that with the
decline in commodity trade as a result of the global economic recession, there
should be a concerted effort to halt the slide.

“It is imperative for the region to review its strategies and
consider diversification option through value addition and export of
manufactured goods. Members should continue to initiate measures to build
bridges of development, investments, and trade cooperation outside their
national boundaries, regions and continent. They should strengthen their
national economies, and in turn, the regional economy in order to sustain our
common and shared vision of regional integration,” Nigeria’s Minister of State
for Commerce and industry, Josephine Tapgun, said.

According to the Minister, the meeting was to strengthen actions
already adopted under WACIP, to encourage further discussions on aspects of the
policy and strategic framework by the Heads of State and Governments, as well
as industrial issues by the African Union Commission (AUC).

The devastating impact of the global financial crisis, she
noted, resulted in the crash in prices of Africa’s major export commodities in
the world market, including crude oil, gold and cocoa, pointing out that the
continent’s international trade, foreign direct investment flows, tourism and
foreign aid, have been adversely affected by the collapse of the capital market
in Europe, Asia and United States.

Hinging the economic transformation and sustainable development
of the region on a robust industrial sector, Mrs. Tapgun urged member-nations
to exploit their resources for local consumption and export, as well as add
value to their agricultural produce, while remaining competitive, if they are
to overcome global recession.

She cited the steps already taken by Nigeria to implement an
action plan that emphasises national, regional, and continental policy
frameworks, adding that apart from reviewing and revalidating its trade and
industrial policies, the Federal Government has set medium term target for the
manufacturing sectors in the national development programme spanning 2010 and
2013.

Modernise industrial
capacity

The Minister listed the targets to include modernising and
expanding the nation’s industrial processing capacity to 50 percent; increase
the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) from 4 to 13 percent;
enhance the business climate for manufacturing by reducing regulatory and other
costs by 60 percent; increase annual growth rate in manufacturing to 20
percent, as well as raise average local content in the sector from 22 to 55
percent.

Other targets include increasing agricultural produce processing
by 10 percent annually; attain 60 percent compliance with global International
Standard Organization (ISO) quality standards; increase share of manufactured
goods in export from 2.5 to 10 percent, as well as raise employment share by 15
percent annually by 2020.

The Commissioner for Trade, Custom, Industry, Mines and Free
Movement, Mohammed Daramy, said in view of the challenges of globalisation,
food insecurity, financial and energy crises to the economies of the region,
the ECOWAS Commission is determined to foster regional integration through a
20-year industrialisation action plan expected to last till 2030.

The plan, he said, would focus on diversifying the regional
industrial production to raise local raw materials processing by an average of
30 percent; boost contribution of manufacturing to regional GDP to over 20
percent; increasing intra-community trade in the region by 40 percent, while
export of finished and semi-finished goods from the region to the global market
would grow to one percent by 2030.